Orangutan appears to treat his own wound
- Researchers watched the great ape chew leaves, apply to facial wound
- Previously only chimpanzees have been observed treating wounds
- Animals also observed eating non-foods for curative properties
This combination of photos provided by the Suaq foundation shows a facial wound on Rakus, a wild male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, on June 23, 2022, two days before he applied chewed leaves from a medicinal plant, left, and on Aug. 25, 2022, after his facial wound was barely visible. (Armas, Safruddin/Suaq foundation via AP)
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(NewsNation) — Ape, heal thyself. That’s apparently what happened a couple of years ago when scientists observed an orangutan treating a facial wound with the juice of a tropical plant.
Researchers watched the ape named Rakus chew up leaves from a medicinal plant that grows in southeast Asia, use his fingers to apply the plant juices directly onto a cheek wound, and then use the chewed plant as a makeshift bandage to cover the wound.
“This is the first time that we have observed a wild animal applying a quite potent medicinal plant directly to a wound,” co-author Isabelle Laumer, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany told Time magazine.
Scientists first observed the self-treating behavior in 2002 at a primate research facility in Medan, Indonesia. The report was published on May 2 in the journal Scientific Reports.
Great apes have been observed using plants to treat themselves, like chewing on plants to soothe their stomachs and rubbing themselves with medicinal plants to reduce pain or deter parasites.
But Rakus’ wound self-treatment was the first time, and the only time, scientists have seen that behavior. They’ve been observing orangutans in Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park since 1994.
