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takyon writes:

BBC News reports that chimpanzees in Guinea have been seen drinking naturally-occurring alcoholic sap in the wild:

Scientists studying chimpanzees in Guinea have seen evidence of long-term and recurrent ingestion of ethanol by apes. The 17-year study recorded chimps using leaves to drink fermented palm sap. Some drank enough alcohol to produce "visible signs of inebriation". The study - published in the journal Royal Society Open Science - revealed their tipple of choice is naturally fermented palm wine, produced by raffia palm trees.

In the Bossou area of Guinea, where this research took place, some local people harvest "palm wine" from the trees - tapping them at the crown, and gathering the sap in plastic containers, which they collect in the mornings and evenings. Researchers working in the area had already witnessed chimpanzees climbing the trees - often in groups - and drinking the naturally fermented palm sap. The chimps used drinking tools called leaf sponges - handfuls of leaves that they chew and crush into absorbent sponges, dip into the liquid and suck out the contents.

To work out the extent of the animals' indulging, the scientists measured the alcohol content of the wine in the containers and filmed the chimps' "drinking sessions". The research team, led by Dr Kimberley Hockings from Oxford Brookes University and the Centre for Research in Anthropology in Portugal, worked out that the sap was about 3% alcohol by volume. "Some individuals were estimated to have consumed about 85ml of alcohol," she said, "the equivalent to 8.5 UK units [approximately equal to a bottle of wine]".