Tree Shrew Lives on Nature-Brewed Beer

While he suggested the tree shrews might also experience some kind of pleasant sensation, they appear to handle their alcoholic diet well. Analysis of hair plucked from the creatures revealed extremely high concentrations of a compound known as ethyl glucuronide. This is the end product of a chemical process that gets rid of alcohol and other toxic things from the body.

"In humans, only a negligible amount of the consumed alcohol is detoxified via this pathway," Wiens said.

The process explains why a small amount of alcohol can help reduce anxiety and stress in people, while conferring certain other medical properties, but larger amounts can often lead to health problems and alcohol addiction.

Since the pentailed tree shrew is believed to be ecologically and behaviorally close to extinct, ancestral primates that lived over 55 million years ago, the researchers theorize early shrews and primates were exposed to potentially harmful alcohol levels early in their development, but that humans and most other modern primates either weren't exposed to it as much, or lost the beer-guzzling adaptations as the years went on.

Webb Miller, a Penn State University professor of biology, computer science and engineering, has also studied tree shrews, along with flying lemurs. Miller and his team found that, despite their diminutive size and physical differences, the rainforest dwellers are closely related to us.

Miller said "now that we know their relationship to primates," tree shrews and flying lemurs, in particular, "are going to be much more important species to study."

In the future, Wiens and his team hope additional studies on pentailed tree shrews and their favorite food might help to explain how alcohol consumption emerged in humans and why certain groups possess different levels of tolerance. Asian individuals, for example, possess a low metabolic tolerance for alcohol that protects against alcoholism. Wiens said evolved adaptations to toxins found in rice could have resulted in that ability.

Related Links:

Jennifer Viegas' blog: Born Animal

How Stuff Works: Beer

How Stuff Works: Alcohol

Animal Info-Malaysia

IUCN Page for the Pen-Tailed Tree Shrew