Big animals drink a lot?

As early as 1875, zoologists discovered several strange elephants when observing wild animals in South Africa. They wobbled and shook their heads from time to time. Finally, these elephants found an empty place to lie down and rest, and didn't wake up until the next morning, causing several buddies to get drunk one after another.

However, at that time, zoologists only thought that this was caused by elephants eating something that might be poisonous. Later, someone did an experiment based on this discovery, that is, some alcohol was mixed in the water for elephants. It was found that elephants drank more than before, and the performance after drinking was very similar to that observed in wild elephants.

As a result, the saying that elephants also like to drink has spread, but in 2006, physiologist Steve Morris of the University of Bristol and his colleagues thought this statement was a "pure rumor" because elephants need a huge amount of alcohol to get drunk, and obviously they can't get enough alcohol from nature.

However, this conclusion was quickly overturned. First, zoologists observed that African elephants had used Marrulla before they got drunk, and most of them were ripe Marrulla fruits picked from the ground. This is crucial, because ripe Marrulla fruits have actually started to ferment on the ground to produce alcohol. Alcohol will accumulate in the body after drinking a lot.

Because elephants like to eat ripe fruits very much, they are attracted by some alcoholic water, which has been confirmed in the practical action of 20021China's southern tour: two Asian elephants ate the distiller's grains fermented by residents, but failed to keep up with the migrating team and returned halfway.

Secondly, in 2020, scientists systematically studied the alcohol tolerance of many birds and mammals, and found that the size of elephants was seriously inconsistent with their alcohol consumption.

In May, 2020, a foreign research team analyzed the genes of alcohol metabolism in animals, and found that the gene responsible for alcohol metabolism in animals was ADH7 gene, and this gene was also changing during the evolution of mammals. If some animals inherit abnormal genes or gene inactivation, the ability of alcohol metabolism in animals will become worse.

The genetic change of this gene is the eating habits of animals. For mammals, as long as the food of herbivores or omnivores contains fruits, the ADH7 gene will not be inactivated. However, the smaller the proportion of fruit in animal food, the easier it is to inherit abnormal genes. After many generations of changes, animals with different alcohol consumption will eventually be formed.

Later, the research team analyzed the elephant's ADH7 gene, and found that its gene is indeed abnormal, which means that the elephant's ability to metabolize alcohol is abnormal, which means that the elephant's alcohol consumption cannot be judged according to the proportion of human and elephant.

By comparing the genes of elephants and humans, the research team concluded that human beings' ability to metabolize alcohol is about 40 times that of elephants, and their body size can be almost ignored, which means that people will get drunk if they drink one catty, and elephants will get drunk if they only drink 2.5 yuan (1/4).

This explains why elephants can "get drunk" just by eating a little marula fruit. In the process of human evolution, the gene mutation of ADH7 gene has also occurred, but this mutation is positive, which has strengthened the ability to metabolize alcohol, which is closely related to the fact that human beings like to eat the fruits of various plants from the beginning of evolution.

Of course, human beings are not unique in drinking. Scientists have found through research that the only animal in nature that can compete with human alcohol consumption is the lemur. This is because the eating habits of lemurs are very close to those of humans. They are omnivorous animals, and plant foods are mainly fruits and plant leaves, among which fruits account for a very large proportion. Lemurs also like to eat ripe fruits, which makes them highly dependent on alcohol metabolism.

After all, as an animal that often eats ripe fruits, if it doesn't have strong alcohol metabolism ability, it will get drunk as soon as it is eaten, sleep as soon as it is drunk, and be eaten by carnivores as soon as it sleeps. In other words, only lemurs with enhanced alcohol metabolism will survive.

Although many animals in nature eat fruits, only a few animals on the ground eat ripe fruits, such as ants. They take food back to their nests and eat it. Even if they sleep drunk, it won't have much impact on their survival. Like many birds, it is different. Although they also like to eat ripe fruit, it is too dangerous to eat it on the ground, so the fruit they eat is often unfermented or just fermented alcohol, so their lives are different.

As early as 20 17, researchers from Oregon Health and Science University conducted a drinking experiment with zebra finches. In the experiment, the researchers prepared three different cups of water: ordinary water, water with fruit juice, water with fruit juice and alcohol. It was found that the zebra finch prefers alcoholic juice water, which means that the smell of alcohol means high sweetness in many animals that eat fruit.

However, it is worth mentioning that the ADH7 gene of different people is very different, which directly determines people's alcohol consumption. So many people tell you that drinking can be practiced, which is a lie, because everyone's ADH7 gene is doomed from birth. The so-called exercise is that your stomach, liver and nerves are gradually accustomed to this kind of stimulation from alcohol, so don't really think of drinking.