美国科学60秒-SSS 2015-06-09（在线收听）

 Chimpanzees.They are much like us, genetically and atomically, and as it turns out, cocktail logically. Because we finally have solid evidence that chims drink alcohol. So say researchers who observed wild chimpanzees throw back fermented tree sap. The findings are served up in Royal Society Journal Open Science. Some biologists think the reason we humans like adult beverages is because our primate ancestors were partial to super-ripe friuts, which are high in calories and often in ethanol. But there is one big problem with this so-called drunken monkey hypothesis. Apes had not really been seen downing alchohol in the wild, that is until now. The researchers who are studying chimps in bars of West Africa. In this region, people tap palm trees and allow the collected sap to ferment in small plastic containers which they cover with leaves to prevent contamination. It turns out, for chimps who hank a houge, the leaves are like the straw and banana deckery. The apes take the leaves, crumple them up, dip them in the sap and then suck them dry. The drinkers were mostly male, shockingly, accounting for thirty-four of the fifty-one balts of boozing observed. And they'd consume a couple of liters of the fermented brew each time they bellied up to the bar, I mean, tree. Whether chimps are simply taking advantages of an easily-acquired calory-rich liquid, or they especially enjoy the sap's sweet flavor, or intoxicating effect, is not known. But the question call for another round of research.