Chronicles of a Drunken Monkey

In the course of your college career, the chances are good that at some point you’ll come into contact with drunk people, and perhaps even *gasp* get drunk yourself. The behaviors exhibited by a drunk person are as varied as the people who drink; some binge drink, some drink during stressful times, and some just like to throw a few back and socialize. Now, if you were to head to The Monkey Bar in Amherst, you wouldn’t expect to see any actual monkey’s ordering gin and tonics at the bar; according to some recent studies about monkeys however, we aren’t the only species that likes to get sloshed and make fools of ourselves.

A study published in the journal Methods, explores the common ground shared by humans and primates in terms of our alcohol consumption, reaction, and abuse. The monkeys in the study showed patterns of alcohol consumption increase during the work hours of the facility that they are housed in.

"It was not unusual to see some of the monkeys stumble and fall, sway, and vomit," Chen added. "In a few of our heavy drinkers, they would drink until they fell asleep."

The study also concluded that those monkeys that were individually housed were likely to drink significantly more than monkeys housed in social groups. These are also similar to symptoms of human alcoholism. Another study conducted at McGill University in Montreal concluded that the majority of monkeys that consumed alcohol fell into four categories, "binge drinker, steady drinker, social drinker, and teetotaler." These monkeys also displayed some hilarious familiarity to the behavior see at many houses in Amherst, any weekend night.

"A cage full of drunken monkeys is like a cocktail party. Your have one who gets aggressive, one who gets sexy, one who thinks everything is funny and one who gets really grumpy. The binge drinkers gulp down the alcohol at a very fast rate and pass out on the floor. The next day they do it all over again."

Although I too was giggling hysterically and planning a trip to the local monkey dealer, I quickly found that these boozed up chimps aren't all fun and games. A news report out of India relates an attack by a group of monkeys that helped themselves to some alcohol conveniently left out in the open for them. No one in the village was killed... thankfully the monkeys couldn't swing straight.

Studying the behavior of our closest ancestors is key to understanding more about our own species' behavior. Hopefully these studies will spawn research in the realms of human alcohol addiction. The chance to study the process of alcohol addiction and the myriad social factors that it results from, in a controlled environment, is a great opportunity for scientists. As I see it, everybody wins, researchers get their data, and the monkeys get to party like they're animals.

Posted by Adam Stackhouse