How does the Booze-Rat fuel its defensive mechanism?

Of all the creatures in Hatjörn's dominion, there is none as peculiar as the Murinae Spirita, the mean booze-rat. A vermin so resilient that has developed the most wondrous means of defence and thus survival.

Excerpt from Hjårdan Animaliæ

Welcome to the Most Ingenious Questions You Never Thought Of. Today we look at the booze-rat, an animal aptly named for its unique defensive mechanism of storing strong¹ alcohol in its body in order to daze/incapacitate a predator.

In order to do that, one or more booze-rats sacrifice themselves so the rest of the colony can devour the now harmless attacker.
Thus they 'prey' on animals such as cats, weasels and various other predators.

Q: How do the booze-rats produce/procure the strong alcohol in their bodies? And how do they store it so it doesn't hurt/kill them as well?

!!: This question is about finding possible means of producing alcohol inside the body of the animal; and additionally about where to store this alcohol. This question is optionally about finding reasons the animal will not die due to the constant presence of alcohol in its body.
This question is not about how to evolve this animal.
This question is not about the taxonomy of such an animal.
This question is not about if it is an earth-rat nor if it is possible for an earth-rat to evolve into such an animal.

_{¹Strong alcohol: As a household dog/cat will already suffer extremely from a simple beer I assume that some 40-45% alcohol (e.g. Vodka) would probably suffice. But: The more, the merrier!}

posted about 8 years ago

dot_Sp0T‭

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