Chimps use medicinal plants to treat their wounds

Wild chimpanzees have been observed self-medicating their wounds with plants, providing medical aid to other chimps and even removing others from snares left by human hunters, new research suggests.

Wild chimpanzees have been observed self-medicating their wounds with plants, providing medical aid to other chimps and even removing others from snares left by human hunters, new research suggests. 

The behaviors — which are documented in a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Evolution and Ecology on Wednesday — provide new clues about the origin of medical care in humans. 

The study combines historical data and about eight months of new observations, including many captured on video and in photos. It provides added evidence that our closest living relatives will chew plants and apply makeshift poultices to wounds, clean other animals’ wounds by licking them, and use leaves for a hygienic scrub after sex or defecation. Chimps were also seen pressing wounds and dabbing medicinal leaves to wounds. 

The results, particularly as they provide evidence that chimpanzees who are not kin care for one another, add new fuel to the debate over whether humans are the only species capable of providing prosocial, or altruistic, care to others. 

Wild chimpanzees in Uganda grooming.Elodie Freymann“One of the things humans have clung onto is that we’re this very special species, because we are capable of altruism and we’re capable of empathy,” said Elodie Freymann, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the first author of the study. “Animals are helping each other out. They’re capable of identifying others in need and then addressing those specific needs.”