🐒🍹 Chimpanzees Share Fermented Fruit – Are These the Roots of Human Feasting?

 

🐒🍹 Chimpanzees Share Fermented Fruit – Are These the Roots of Human Feasting?

In a quiet corner of Guinea-Bissau’s Cantanhez National Park, something remarkable has been captured on film:

Wild chimpanzees gathered together, not to fight, not to mate — but to share fermented fruit.

🍌 Not just a snack. A moment of connection.

And now scientists ask: is this how feasting began?

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🎥 The Footage That Sparked a Theory

Researchers from the University of Exeter filmed chimpanzees consuming overripe African breadfruit, naturally fermented to contain up to 0.61% alcohol.

💬 “They’re not getting drunk,” said researcher Kimberley Hockings.

“But the alcohol could produce mild effects — similar to sipping a light beer.”

More importantly: the chimpanzees were sharing this fruit — something they rarely do.

And it happened across ages, sexes, and social status.

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🧠 Alcohol, Bonding and Dopamine

We know in humans, sharing alcohol boosts bonding — releasing dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins.

Could something similar be happening here?

👩‍🔬 “This may be the early evolutionary roots of feasting,” says Anna Bowland of the University of Exeter.

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This discovery raises one profound question:

📜 Did the act of "toasting together" begin long before humans ever existed?

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🍽️ Sharing, Politics and Primates

Chimpanzees aren’t known for freely giving up food. That’s why this footage matters.

In one scene, two females chose a smaller, more fermented piece of fruit over a larger, ripe one.

In another, three adult males — Mandjambé, Gary and Bobby — displayed mild aggression before settling into a shared feast.

🔍 These aren’t random moments.

They may represent the primordial echoes of ritual sharing — the forerunner to the human feast.

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🔬 What Comes Next?

The researchers stress that the sample is small.

But they believe it could lead to “an explosion of research” into how fermented foods may have shaped early social behaviour — and perhaps, even the roots of celebration.

📖 The study, published in Current Biology, is titled:

“Wild chimpanzees share fermented fruits: Origins of feasting?”

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  Image credit: University of Exeter, via The Guardian. Used for editorial and educational purposes only.