MONKEY MEDICINE: Chimpanzees Possess Human-Like Healing Talents
Photo by Shtefan Lounge on Unsplash
We often consider humans to be a unique, exceptionally advanced, and unparalleled biological species. For instance, are you aware of examples of medicine existing among animals? British researchers from Oxford University are familiar with such cases. They have discovered that in the wild, chimpanzees can effectively treat infections and wounds using medicinal plants. The results of these studies were published in the international scientific journal PLOS One.
ANIMALS: MASTERS OF SELF-MEDICATION
In fact, self-medication in the wild is not limited to monkeys. Observing animal medicine has often saved human lives. For example, during World War I, it was recalled that deer healed wounds using common moss, which was then used as an antibacterial material for bandages with significant healing properties.
Dolphins rub against antibacterial corals and sponges to treat skin infections. Macaws eat clay to neutralize the effects of plant toxins, which evolved as a defense against birds. Crows lie in anthills to have ants remove parasites from their feathers.
Even insects know how to treat themselves. For example, caterpillars consume plants with high alkaloid content to destroy larvae laid inside them by other insects. While this behavior is attributed to instinct, it’s hard not to think of conscious altruism when an animal begins to treat not only itself but also others.
In spring, foxes and badgers bring their young out of the dens for prolonged sunbaths, promoting the production of vitamin D. Lions lick each other’s wounds, disinfecting them with their saliva and cleaning away dirt. Horses groom each other with their teeth. Dogs, when reviving puppies on the brink of life and death, perform something akin to artificial respiration. The plover fearlessly pecks leeches from the open mouth of a crocodile, knowing that the grateful reptile will do it no harm.
BIRTH CONTROL
You might think that birth control is a human invention and that only humans have the freedom to choose when to have offspring. But that’s not entirely true. Not all animals reproduce unconsciously, leaving it to chance. For example, African elephant cows, who typically carry their young for 11 months, have learned to induce premature labor. Interestingly, they use the same plant from the Boraginaceae family that local Kenyan tribes use.
The woolly spider monkey, native to Brazil, is also adept at controlling birth rates. The females have discovered a form of contraception, consuming specific plants that alter female sex hormone levels and reduce fertility.
What’s even more astonishing is that they can not only prevent pregnancy but also increase their chances of conceiving when desired. They use unique fruits for this purpose as well.
CHIMPANZEES: NATURE’S HEALERS
Given monkeys’ level of hygiene, systematic prevention and treatment of diseases are essential for them. They eat raw food, don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom, and drink water from various sources. This is where humans might seem to have a significant advantage over primates if not for how effectively these great apes have learned to deal with their parasites.
To cleanse their intestines of parasites, chimpanzees voluntarily consume a very bitter plant — Vernonia amygdalina, from the Asteraceae family. They grimace but force themselves to swallow the plant whole to avoid chewing and tasting its unpleasant flavor. Such behavior doesn’t seem purely instinctual.
Scientists have gathered numerous pieces of evidence showing how monkeys use medicinal plants to combat various ailments. A few years ago, biologists revealed how a Sumatran orangutan they observed treated its wounds by rubbing them with a mixture of saliva and the juice of Fibraurea tinctoria, a plant it carefully chewed.
The medicine prepared in this way possessed excellent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. In an article published by the journal PLOS One, a multinational team from Europe, Japan, and Uganda detailed 17 new samples from 13 plant species found in the pharmaceutical arsenal of these «ape Hippocrates and Avicennas».
DON’T CONFUSE FOOD WITH MEDICINE!
Members of the research team spent four months living with two communities of chimpanzees in the wild forests of Uganda. These chimpanzees had been previously acclimatized to the presence of human observers. The team stayed with the monkeys for 10 hours a day, documenting everything: what and how they ate, what and how they drank, and what was part of their regular diet versus what was consumed occasionally.
The researchers monitored wounds, parasite bites, and bouts of diarrhea and even regularly tested the chimpanzees’ urine. As a result, they discovered that out of 170 chimpanzees they studied, 51 animals had inflammations and suffered from infectious diseases. In one example, the researchers demonstrated how self-medication occurs among chimpanzees.
One individual suffering from diarrhea briefly left the safety of their group’s territory to seek out the bark of Alstonia boonei, a tree from the Apocynaceae family. The wood of this plant could be more nutritious and is rarely consumed by chimpanzees as food. However, in this case, the chimpanzee sought the tree not as food but as medicine.
Another case involved a chimpanzee treating a wound on its arm with leaves of Christella parasitica, a type of fern. The sick animal consumed these leaves, which were clearly not part of the regular diet, as healthy members of the community completely ignored them.
ALMOST LIKE HUMANS: IS IT INTELLIGENCE OR INSTINCT?
Scientists tested samples of all the plants consumed by sick chimpanzees for antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties step by step. They then compared these findings with information on medicinal plants used in local traditional medicine.
It turned out that both humans and chimpanzees often use the same remedies. For example, local tribes use the «dog tree» to treat bacterial infections, gastrointestinal diseases, snake bites, and asthma. However, some anti-inflammatory agents, like certain ferns, are known only to chimpanzees, though they could benefit humans, such as in treating injuries.
The question of «who learned the art of healing from whom?» remains open. However, 11 out of 13 of the remedies used by chimpanzees are also utilized by local tribes. Some scientists doubt whether chimpanzees practice self-medication consciously and whether their recovery is the result of using specific plants.
Michael Huffman, a primatologist from Nagasaki University and a co-author of the study, suggests that illness might trigger an instinctive craving for bitter foods, which often have antiparasitic or antibiotic properties as a bonus. However, his colleague John Arnason, a phytochemist and expert in ethnopharmacology from the University of Ottawa, strongly disagrees.
In his view, chimpanzees use the same methods as humans — in their search for effective medicines, they rely on observation and experimentation, passing this important practical knowledge down to future generations. As we can see, even the study’s authors do not fully agree, so it’s still too early to draw definitive conclusions in the study of chimpanzee medicine
Original research:
- Pharmacological and behavioral investigation of putative self-medicative plants in Budongo chimpanzee diets
- Chimps use more plant medicines than any other animal
