Malaysian Shrew Survives on Beer
Posted on July 29, 2008 Comments (2)
Malaysian Shrew Survives on Beer
The shrew lives in the forest of Malaysia and feeds on the flowers of the bertam palm. Produced year-round and constantly fermenting, its nectar is about 3.8 percent alcohol — roughly equivalent to a Sam Adams light.
“Fine,” you say, “except that’s a light beer!” But cut the shrew some slack — it doesn’t eat anything else. Let’s see you subsist on nothing but beer, light or not, and stay sober.
That’s the shrews’ most amazing quality: they don’t get drunk. On any given night, said researchers in a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one-third of the shrews have a blood-alcohol level that would leave us under the bar — but there’s no evidence of intoxication.
Related: Nectar-Feeding Bats – Turtle Camps in Malaysia – posts on animals – Mutualism – Inter-species Cooperation
2 Responses to “Malaysian Shrew Survives on Beer”
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July 31st, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
very interesting animal, why am i surprised that this critter does not live in munich, germany?
September 4th, 2009 @ 6:07 pm
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