image from Reuters
Think we have a drinking problem on our hands with beer-guzzling Friday nights? Mother Nature introduces to you the champion of drinkers - the pen-tailed treeshrew (Ptilocercus lowii) - a tiny rodent seen in Malaysian forests known locally as the tupai ekor kembang. This animal, which has not been allowed into human pubs perhaps because of strict drinking laws, has its own watering hole in the tree-tops. It quaffs the equivalent of a case of 3.8% alcohol content beer every night - the drink being a brew from the naturally-fermented nectar of the flowers of the bertam palm (Eugeissona tristis). Every night. A drinking binge that lasts about 2 and a half hours. Enough to make any mortal male totally pissed drunk. This little bugger has no liver problems either.
Hard to believe? These were the results of a scientific study published in the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Watch our little friend as it makes its moves:
The pen-tailed treeshrew does its pub-crawling here
(QuickTime movie. If you don’t have the player installed, click here)
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