Just a year ago, a group of scientists confirmed that chimpanzees self-medicate. In a groundbreaking study, they demonstrated that these primates sought out specific plants in the forest that they consumed as natural antibiotics to prevent diseases. Now, taking it a step further, researchers have recorded chimpanzees in a forest in Uganda using plants for 'first aid'.
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, confirms that these animals use medicinal plants to treat open wounds and other injuries. This discovery aligns with many other pieces of evidence showing that great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas) use plants they gather in nature to maintain their health.
Elodie Freymann, the lead researcher of the study, explains that there is "a whole repertoire of behaviors that chimpanzees use when they are sick or injured in the wild, to treat themselves and maintain hygiene." "Some of these include the use of plants found here. Chimpanzees apply them to wounds or chew them, and then apply the chewed material to the open wound," she adds.
One of the pieces of evidence provided by the research is the footage of a very young female chimpanzee chewing on plants that she later applies to a wound on her mother's body. The study has also collected other very revealing images, such as those of other primates applying these 'poultices' to animals they are not even related to.
Other data used includes the notebooks kept by the rangers who observe these animals, dating back to 1990. They describe behaviors that support the study's theory, such as chimpanzees treating wounds on their fingers with specific plants or even using leaves to clean themselves after defecating.
"The more we learn about the behavior and intelligence of chimpanzees, the more I believe we come to understand how little humans truly know about the natural world," Freymann told the BBC.