5. Drunken Monkey Business
On the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, there is a raging alcoholic population. It’s not the locals or the tourists either, but the local ververt monkey population.
Some observers are quick to condemn the resorts and tourists for enabling the monkeys’ addiction to alcohol. However, it should be noted that the monkeys have been getting high for around 300 years, since they were brought to the island. They initially developed a taste for alcohol by eating fermented fruits on the forest floor.
The presence of the resort and tourists is simply unfortunate. Watching these monkeys swoop down and cart away half-drunk martinis, sodas, anything in a cup, is something to be seen. The way they swig every last drop is reminiscent of alcoholic behavior in humans.
Their behavior led to a controversial experiment where scientists tried to isolate an alcohol gene. Research into the behavior shows that over time, 5% of them develop into raging alcoholics.
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