Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)

Ethanol is a natural by-product of the microbial fermentation of fruit sugars. Recent studies suggest that this dietary-ethanol might be used by frugivorous primates as a supplemental source of calories. Some authors even claim that the predilection of non-human primates for ethanol-containing overripe fruit would reflect the evolutionary origin of human alcoholism. Other authors, however, emphasize that the ethanol content in overripe fruits is usually low and thus unlikely to substantially contribute calories to the animal's diet and that frugivorous animals usually prefer ripe over overripe fruits.

Many studies observed the voluntary consumption of alcohol in non-human primates, among many other species, but most of them aimed to assess the mechanisms underlying alcohol dependence and used concentrations of ethanol that are often higher than those found in fermenting fruit.

Thus, this study aimed to assess the taste repsonsiveness of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi), a highly frugivorous New World monkey, to ethanol, in concentrations close to those found in naturally fermenting fruit.