Why elephants can not drink alcohol?

According to a group of Canadian researchers, African elephants can get drunk by eating decayed marula fruit - a favorite snack of the world's heaviest terrestrial animal.

These land giants lack a mutant gene that allows them to process alcohol , a gene that appears in other animals, including humans, koalas, koalas and some species of bats. As a result, the passion of African elephants for the fermented marula - the fruit used to make beer - quickly gets them drunk.

Elephants lack a mutant gene that allows them to process alcohol.

Debate about whether elephants really intoxicated occur between scientists had long, with some alleged supporters of the hypothesis of 'impersonal' animals. But an elephant genetic study discovered the basic genetic element that revealed why elephants cannot drink alcohol.

Elephants' predisposition to eat fermented marula - the fruit used to make beer - makes them quickly drunk, according to a team of Canadian researchers. The key to this problem is the gene Gene A294 V, which allows humans and other large apes to process alcohol quickly. Its presence in other animals is also associated with their high alcohol tolerance. For example, fermented tree shrews contain enough alcohol to make a person drunk. The researchers said that, although only 10 centimeters long and weighs 0.07 percent more than an adult, it 'showed no signs of being drunk'.

Egyptian bats are found to have a relatively weak drinking capacity, they will be drunk when drinking alcohol equal to 1% of their body weight. Meanwhile, 'leaf-nosed' bats , also known as Phylostomids, found in North and South America, are not affected by alcohol.

African elephants can get drunk when eating decaying manula.

The gray deer in Sweden also show signs of being drunk when only a few rotten apples start to ferment.

According to folk notions, the elephants across Africa like marula fruit loss was fermented - fruit is used to make beer. Previous research has supported the opposing views on this issue. For example, Professor Steve Morris and colleagues from the University of Bristol have calculated that an elephant must drink 27 liters of 7% fermented fruit juice to exhibit intoxicating behaviors. Ho said that elephants need to eat a huge amount of fruit to get drunk because it seems very difficult to reach 3% alcohol.

In a report published in the journal Biology Letters, Canadian researchers share, it is now possible to believe that folklore may be true after all.

Humans' ability to tolerate alcohol comes from evolutionary changes, but in other animals, the ability to drink alcohol is not well understood. The researchers say the reason behind the elephant's drunkenness is due to the lack of the A294 V gene. They say this suggests a conclusion about the amount of ethanol needed to induce drunk symptoms in an Asian elephant. Africa may be false, and can be clearly demonstrated.

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