Comment on Animals that use Drugs

scrion@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Jaguars actually eat the leaves of b. capii, which acts as a MAOI in the Ayahuasca brew.

While there is some discussion that the harmala alkaloids in b. capii might also be slightly psychoactive in high doses, the actual main compound in Ayahuasca is DMT, which is certainly very psychoactive, but not bioavailable when consumed orally without a MAOI. Unless the jaguars have figured out how to combine the two and/or brew ayahuasca, I strongly doubt that’s their intention and that they’d get comparable effects.

I think the idea stems from BBC show Weird Nature showing a jaguar eating yage leaves in episode 6, “Peculiar Potions”.

I’m not really sold on how well that content was researched.

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