A macaque monkey is making the rounds on social media after it was caught on video by passersby while committing a crime in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh in India.
The animal boldly broke into a liquor store and grabbed a bottle of booze from a display in the middle of the store. It then worked on the top for a minute or so with his fingers and teeth. After skillfully removing the screw cap, he proceeded to gracefully sip the spirit using a unique two-handed, one-foot technique, as crowds cheered him on.
The gentleman managing the store at the time appeared calm and collected while the incident occurred, offering the creature a treat, either as a distraction or a complement to his drink of choice. The monkey, however, clearly came in for the liquor. He kept his attention on the task at hand and even licked the spillings so as not to waste a drop of the precious liquid.
— sudhanshu maheshwari (@smaheshwari523) July 14, 2021
This is not the first time a monkey has demonstrated a preference for alcohol. A macaque that was known to be a regular at the Diwakar Bar and Restaurant in Kammanahalli, India suddenly became aggressive after drinking too much one night in 2018. In a more serious incident, a macaque named Kalua was sentenced to life in prison in 2020 after biting 250 people and killing one in Uttar Pradesh while suffering from alcohol withdrawal.
In more proof that nature is more strange than we can imagine, chimpanzees and other monkeys are known to make their own wine. The Drunken Monkey hypothesis even postulates that humans are especially attracted to alcohol precisely because our evolutionary ancestors derived nutritional value from fermented fruit.