Experts have found that monkeys and lemurs feast on fruit and nectar containing ethanol, the main ingredient in booze.

The researchers observed that primates were amongst the largest groups of animals that deliberately ingest ethanol for the sake of catching a buzz.

Chimpanzees were seen using leaf sponges to collect sap with considerable ethanol concentrations and carried on consuming it.

Ethanol is present in almost every ecosystem on the planet which could explain why there are several accounts of wildlife behaving in a drunken fashion.

Kimberley Hockings, senior author of the study at the University of Exeter, said: "We're moving away from this anthropocentric view that ethanol is just something that humans use.

"It's much more abundant in the natural world than we previously thought, and most animals that eat sugary fruits are going to be exposed to some level of ethanol."

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