Alcoholic Monkey Goes on Booze-Stealing Binge, Torments Local Liquor Shops

A macaque, the same species of monkey causing trouble for liquor stores in India. (Photo: RoJan Manandhar/Pexels)

An alcoholic monkey has been wreaking havoc in India by running around town and robbing liquor bottles from local shops, according to Newsweek.

The monkey, a rhesus macaque, has been seen in Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, where stores and citizens have reported it snatching alcohol and drinking it.

The macaque has even been caught on camera guzzling a tall can of beer, as seen in a video posted on Twitter by Anurag Mishra.

रायबरेली में बंदर का शराब पीने का वीडियो हुआ वायरल जो शराब की दुकान में आने वाले लोगो से शराब छीन लेता है और गटक जाता है। pic.twitter.com/We8qaAY4pi

— Anurag Mishra (@AnuragM27306258) October 30, 2022

Newsweek reported that due to expanding populations, conflicts between these monkeys and Indian citizens have recently increased.

A shop owner said that the alcoholic monkey will bite people when attempts are made to shoo it away. According to Newsweek, reports to local authorities about the trouble-causing monkey have been made; however, shopkeepers have alleged that nothing has been done to stop the issue.

NDTV reported that the local Forest Department is currently on the lookout for the monkey.

As a native species to the country, macaques have been observed enjoying alcohol before.

“Macaques are well known to chronically imbibe alcohol over prolonged periods of time, as has been demonstrated in the laboratory as well,” Anindya Sinha, a professor and primatologist at India’s National Institute of Advanced Studies, told Newsweek. “There are also fairly well-established, though unpublished, records of rhesus and bonnet macaques of northern and southern India respectively occasionally drinking alcohol, if they had a chance to do so from sources accidentally available to them.”

Similar findings have been revealed in a study conducted by primatologist Christina Campbell and her graduate student, Victoria Weaver. By researching spider monkeys in Panama, the team discovered that these animals frequently consume alcohol in the form of ripened fruit.

“For the first time, we have been able to show, without a shadow of a doubt, that wild primates, with no human interference, consume fruit-containing ethanol,” Campbell said, according to Berkeley News.

The study also revealed that the tendency of humans drinking alcohol may stem from fruit-eating primates’ “deep-rooted affinity” for fruit with naturally occurring ethanol.

Here at Gin Raiders, we do more than write about current events in gin. We are the only media property reviewing gins and aggregating the scores and reviews of other significant voices in the gin world in one place. If you’re interested in getting a shot of gin in your morning email, sign up for our Deal of the Day newsletter