Great tree shrew: an alcoholic animal (8 photos)

Contrary to expectations, tree shrews are small and quite intelligent animals. After all, it's hard to call someone stupid who invented drinking 4% alcoholic mash 24/7 and not dying! However, they paid a huge price for this gift—the intoxication of alcohol no longer has any power over them.





And judging by the expression on their face, they seem quite powerful.

Great tree shrews are large only compared to other tree shrews. In reality, they're tiny, about the size of a human palm and weighing only 200-300 grams. Their destiny is to hide in the forest floor and low grass from civets, birds of prey, venomous snakes, and many other predators that inhabit Borneo and Sumatra, islands in Southeast Asia. How could you avoid falling to the bottom of a bottle in such conditions?



Each tree shrew is an inexhaustible source of funny faces.

The diet of these secretive and cautious mammals consists literally of whatever they can find on the ground without being caught by predators—usually carrion and small items like worms, beetles, millipedes, and woodlice. They also enjoy fruit, but rarely climb trees to find it, so as not to risk it. But fruit is the most interesting part of their lives.





Friend, throw me a hundred, my pipes are burning.

Fresh fruit rarely falls to the ground, so large tree shrews get softened fruit, inside which bacteria actively convert sugars into alcohol. So actively that its concentration can reach 4%! For us humans, such an alcoholic drink already poses some threat. But for small and fragile tree shrews, it should have been certain death. However, it didn't.



I don't have a problem with alcohol!



They took him to the monkey house.

During the fruiting season, tree shrews switch entirely to fruit, consuming, processing, and breaking down ethanol for days without ill effects. Moreover, they derive considerable benefit from a several-week-long binge, as ethanol can be quite calorific if processed properly.



Dry...

Despite their copious drinking, great tree shrews have no culture of socializing. Even when living in the same territory, males and females meet only for mating, avoiding each other the rest of the time. And it's not entirely clear: is this caution or an unwillingness to share treats with a mate?



Typical behavior of a creature that has been drinking fermented juice all day.

However, I believe these little animals are more cautious than greedy. The mother's behavior suggests this. After a few weeks of pregnancy, the female gives birth to 1 to 3 tiny babies—weighing only 9 grams—who immediately begin drinking. True, for now, it's only milk. But they drink enormous quantities, despite their unsightly size—a newborn can consist of approximately 40% milk!



By the way, tree shrews are quite close to humans evolutionarily. It is believed that our common ancestor lived only 87 million years ago. From this ancestor, the lineage we now know as primates then diverged.

The babies will need these supplies terribly, as their next encounter with their mother won't be for at least two days. Each time, the mother will feed them to the point of satiety, then hastily abandon the nest, fearing the danger of bringing predators with her. She will do this for a month, until the babies are old enough to switch to a more traditional tree shrew diet—fruit mash mixed with invertebrate snacks.