Budapest Zoo apes have taste for red wine

BUDAPEST, May 22 (Reuters) Monkeys and apes in Budapest's Zoo drink their way through 55 litres of red wine each year, albeit in small quantities each day, to help boost their red blood cells, the zoo today said.

Budapest Zoo spokesman Zoltan Hanga said it was the 11 anthropoid apes who drank most of the wine in 2005.

''Obviously, they do not have it all at once and get drunk, but they get it in small amounts mixed in their tea,'' Hanga said.

''And it's not Eger Bulls Blood or some expensive wine that they are getting but simple table wine, as it's mainly good for their blood cells.'' Bulls Blood from the town of Eger in northeast Hungary, became one of eastern Europe's best-known wines under communism.

REUTERS DKS BST2039