DNA is not the only thing humans and chimpanzees have in common, they share the same thirst and enjoyment of drinking alcohol.

Research by academics at Oxford Brookes university has found that human’s closest primate cousins drink alcohol using leafy drinking vessels.

The paper, by Dr Kimberley Hockings, has been published in the Royal Society journal Royal Society Open Science. Wild chimpanzees in Bossou in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa, harvest fermented sap from the raffia palm – using a leafy tool as a spongy drinking vessel.

This “drinking sponge” is dipped into the opening of the fermented palm sap container, then put into the mouth for drinking. Researchers found all age and sex classes ingested the fermented palm sap and some of the chimpanzees consumed high quantities of alcohol.

Dr Hockings from Oxford Brookes University and the Centre for Research in Anthropology said: “Some individuals were estimated to have consumed about 85ml of alcohol -– which is the equivalent to 8.5 UK units – and displayed behavioural signs of inebriation, including falling asleep.

“This new use of elementary technology shows once again how clever and enterprising are humankind’s nearest living relations.”