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Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Watch: Chimpanzees give each other first aid
Chimpanzees use forest first aid to treat wounds and leaves to wipe their bottoms, scientists have found. A study, led by a University of Oxford researcher, catalogued the apes dabbing leaves on their wounds, or applying sap and chewed up plant matter to the injuries. They treated the wounds of other members of their group as well as their own. The research, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, adds to a growing body of evidence on how apes take care of themselves in the wild. Dr Elodie Freymann, of Oxford University's School of Anthropology, said: 'We humans like to fancy ourselves unique in lots of different ways. And I think for a long time, we thought that healthcare was one of those ways in which we humans are special.' She said there was 'a whole behavioural repertoire that chimpanzees use when they're sick or injured in the wild – to treat themselves and to maintain hygiene'. 'Some of these include the use of plants that can be found here. The chimpanzees dab them on their wounds or chew the plants up, and then apply the chewed material to the open injury.' Footage of the apes treating each other was included in the study, conducted in Uganda's Budongo Forest, as well as years of observations noted by field staff, researchers and visitors. A log book dating back to the 1990s was found to include anecdotal accounts of the apes dabbing wounds, removing snares and cleaning themselves with leaves after defecating, or mating. Chimps seek medicinal plants Dr Freymann previously reported that chimpanzees appeared to seek out specific medicinal plants to treat their ailments. A 2024 paper saw researchers test the plants eaten by sick or wounded chimps and found that they often had antibacterial, or anti-inflammatory properties. Meanwhile, an orangutan was recorded applying the leaves of a plant commonly used in traditional medicine to a cut on its face, seemingly to hasten healing. Gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos have also been recorded swallowing whole leaves from Aspilia plants to get rid of worms. In 2022, a community of chimpanzees in Gabon was seen putting insects onto their open wounds, potentially as a form of first aid. Chimpanzees in captivity have long been observed giving each other basic medical care, including removing splinters and cleaning each other's teeth. 'Empathic capacities' Finding the same tendency in the wild means 'additional evidence for empathic capacities in our closest evolutionary relatives', researchers concluded. They said it was still not clear how the behaviour was learnt or transmitted and 'establishing this will be an important step for understanding whether any components of non-human healthcare systems are influenced by local medicinal cultures'. Studying ape healthcare could even lead to the discovery of new medicines, scientists believe. Dr Freymann told the BBC: 'The more we learn about chimpanzee behaviour and intelligence, the more I think we come to understand how little we as humans actually know about the natural world. 'If I were plopped down here in this forest with no food and no medicine, I doubt that I'd be able to survive very long, especially if I were injured or sick. 'But chimpanzees thrive here because they know how to access the secrets of this place, and how to find all they need to survive from their surroundings.'
Washington Post
14-05-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Chimps sometimes care for others' wounds, and scientists want to know why
Primatologist Elodie Freymann arrived in Uganda's Budongo Forest in 2021 to observe the chimpanzees there and learn more about their ability to self-medicate with healing plants. But as she flipped through a field book at the site containing the observations of researchers dating back to 1993, she began to notice accounts of the chimps not just ingesting plants to self-medicate, but using them for wound care — and sometimes not always on themselves. In looking through 30 years of observations — as well as eight months of their own — Freymann and her colleagues found that the chimpanzees of Budongo have, in dozens of instances, administered first aid on themselves and others. According to Freymann, these observations, published Wednesday in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, raise questions over chimpanzees' capacity for empathy and altruism. 'It's hard to prove that a nonhuman animal has empathy because you can't sit down and have a conversation with them,' Freymann said. 'Most studies have been done in captivity. But this provides a case study, or several case studies, of chimpanzees in the wild possessing the ability to not just take care of themselves, but to transfer those skills to others.' Chimpanzees and their behaviors have long dominated the field of zoopharmacognosy, the study of nonhuman self-medication. In addition to Freymann's previous research looking into chimpanzees ingesting healing plants to self-medicate, researchers who documented chimpanzees using insects to treat themselves and others in Loango National Park in Gabon argued that their behavior was evidence of their capacity for 'prosocial behaviors,' or voluntary actions that serve the best interest of another. The research into the chimpanzees of Budongo found 34 instances of the chimpanzees practicing self-care, whether it be something as simple as licking their wounds or using leaves to wipe after a bowel movement or mating, to something more complex, such as chewing up plants and putting the material on a wound. There have been seven more instances of chimpanzees providing this sort of care on other chimpanzees and not just related kin. In 2012, a subadult male — a chimpanzee between the age of 10 and 14 — identified as PS sucked the wound on the leg of another subadult male identified as ZG. In 2008, researchers documented an adult male identified as NK removing the nylon snare off an unrelated adult female. The behavior also raises questions over whether the animals' caring skills are instinctual or acquired and then passed on through social learning, Freymann said. In 2008, researchers observed an adult female identified as NB, injured in a bout of intragroup aggression, applying a folded and chewed leaf to her wound. Her daughter, a juvenile female identified as NT, observed her mother doing this and then mimicked the behavior, chewing a leaf and then applying it to her mother's wound. 'I'm not making a case that every certain medicinal behavior is learned, but I think it's not out of the question that chimpanzees are capable of possessing medicinal culture,' she said. Given that apes are considered the closest evolutionary cousin to human beings, understanding 'cognitive and social foundations of health-care behaviors in humans requires examining their evolutionary precursors in our closest living relatives,' Freymann argued in her research article. The chimpanzee behavior observed in Budongo suggests that 'the shared ancestors that we have with chimps and apes would have likely been capable of this kind of caregiving and have the capacity to identify those in need of care and to provide that to others,' Freymann said. But Alexander Piel, a University College London associate professor of evolutionary anthropology who was not involved in Freymann's research, noted that the prosocial behavior demonstrated by chimpanzees in Budongo was very rare, which makes him reluctant to tie the findings to human evolution. There's always an inclination, he said, to connect similarities between humans and apes to evolution, and while it's always a possibility, 'we share other features with them, like our intense sociality, and we share them with non-apes.' Researchers have observed prosocial health-care behaviors among non-ape species such as elephants and dwarf mongooses, Freymann wrote in her study. 'The fact that we see them in non-closely related species suggests that there are some other drivers to this beyond humanness or human-relatedness. … Empathy is a part of the equation, but the data doesn't support that it's the ultimate driver of this behavior,' Piel said. The findings provide a good jumping-off point, Piel said, for exploration into the drivers behind this rare type of prosocial behavior — for example, why chimps are so selective in providing health care to other chimps. Freymann said there will be more studies to come, as well as more long-term monitoring. 'I think we're going to find medicinal cultures not just in chimps but in other animals as well,' Freymann said. 'There's debate always, but there are some medicinal behaviors that appear to be instinctual, the more basic ones. There are some behaviors that we've observed that I think are too complex to be instinctual.'
The Independent
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Wild chimpanzees seen giving ‘first aid' to each other with medicinal plants
Chimpanzees in Uganda have been observed using plants to treat open wounds and tend to each other's injuries. University of Oxford scientists, working with a local team in the Budongo Forest, filmed and recorded the animals using plants for first aid. The footage shows the animals licking and dabbing leaves on wounds. Researchers say the footage adds to a growing body of evidence that primates, including chimps, orangutans and gorillas, use natural medicines in a number of ways to stay healthy in the wild. Dr Elodie Freymann of the University of Oxford, first author of the article in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, said: 'Chimpanzee wound care encompasses several techniques: direct wound licking, which removes debris and potentially applies antimicrobial compounds in saliva; finger licking followed by wound pressing; leaf-dabbing; and chewing plant materials and applying them directly to wounds.' Researchers studied two communities of chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest - Sonso and Waibira. Like all chimpanzees, members of these communities are vulnerable to injuries, whether caused by fights, accidents, or snares set by humans. About 40 per cent of all primates in Sonso have been seen with snare injuries. The researchers spent four months observing each community, as well as drawing on video evidence from the Great Ape Dictionary database, logbooks containing decades of observational data, and a survey of other scientists who had witnessed chimpanzees treating illness or injury. Logbooks dating back to the 1990s show stories of leaf-dabbing on injuries, and chimps helping others to remove snares from their limbs. One note even describes a chimpanzee using leaves to wipe itself after defecating. 'We also documented hygiene behaviours, including the cleaning of genitals with leaves after mating and wiping the anus with leaves after defecation - practices that may help prevent infections,' Dr Freymann said. Scientists identified some of the plants used by the animals, and tests revealed most had antibacterial properties that could improve wound healing. Researchers also recorded 12 injuries in Sonso, all of which were likely caused by within-group conflicts. In Waibira, five chimpanzees were injured - one female by a snare, and four males in fights. There were 41 cases of care recorded, seven of which were caring for others, and 34 cases were self-care. All chimpanzees mentioned in the data recovered from their wounds, but researchers admit they do not know what the outcome would have been had they not done anything about their injuries.
Times
14-05-2025
- Health
- Times
Chimps use medicinal plants to treat each other's wounds
Should you trip over and cut your knee while hiking through a Ugandan forest, the best place to turn for first aid and medical treatment might be the local chimpanzees. Scientists have found that chimps in Budongo Forest can identify leaves with medicinal properties, using them not only to treat their own injuries but also to tend the wounds of others. The chimpanzees were observed treating wounds using leaves from plants from the Acalypha family as well as from a plant called Alchornea floribunda, known as niando, and from Pseudospondias microcarpa, known as the African grape tree. Often they chew the leaves before applying them. • Chimps sharing boozy fruit may point to the origins of pub culture According to the study, published
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Wild chimpanzees filmed using forest 'first aid'
Chimpanzees in Uganda have been observed using medicinal plants - in multiple ways - to treat open wounds and other of Oxford scientists, working with a local team in the Budongo Forest, filmed and recorded incidents of the animals using plants for first aid, both on themselves and occasionally on each research builds on the discovery last year that chimps seek out and eat certain plants to scientists also compiled decades of scientific observations to create a catalogue of the different ways in which chimpanzees use "forest first aid". Researchers say the study, which is published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, adds to a growing body of evidence that primates, including chimps, orangutans and gorillas, use natural medicines in a number of ways to stay healthy in the 'self-medicate' with healing plantsWounded orangutan seen using plant as medicineLead researcher Elodie Freymann explained there was "a whole behavioural repertoire that chimpanzees use when they're sick or injured in the wild - to treat themselves and to maintain hygiene"."Some of these include the use of plants that can be found here," she explained. "The chimpanzees dab them on their wounds or chew the plants up, and then apply the chewed material to the open injury."The researchers studied footage of a very young, female chimpanzee chewing plant material and applying it to an injury on its mother's also found records of chimpanzees tending to the wounds of other animals they weren't related to. This is particularly exciting, explained Dr Freymann, "because it adds to the evidence that wild chimpanzees have the capacity for empathy". Some of the hundreds of written observations that Dr Freymann and her colleagues studied came from a log book at the field station in the forest site, which is northwest of the capital, Kampala. This record of anecdotal evidence dates back to the 1990s – local field staff, researchers and visitors have written in, describing any interesting behaviour they have are stories in that book of leaf-dabbing on injuries and chimps helping other chimps to remove snares from their limbs. There are some surprisingly human-like hygiene habits: One note describes a chimpanzee using leaves to wipe itself after team of researchers has previously identified some of the plants that chimpanzees sought out and ate when they were injured. The scientists took samples of those plants, tested them and discovered most had antibacterial properties. Chimpanzees are not the only non-human apes with apparent knowledge of plant-based medicine. A recent study showed a wild oranguatan using chewed leaf material to heal a facial think studying this wild ape behaviour - and understanding more about the plants the chimps use when they are sick or injured - could help in the search for new medicines."The more we learn about chimpanzee behaviour and intelligence, the more I think we come to understand how little we as humans actually know about the natural world," Dr Freymann told BBC News."If I were plopped down here in this forest with no food and no medicine, I doubt that I'd be able to survive very long, especially if I were injured or sick.""But chimpanzees thrive here because they know how to access the secrets of this place, and how to find all they need to survive from their surroundings."
