Orangutan seen treating wound with medicinal plant in world first
Al Jazeera
A Sumatran orangutan named Rakus was seen using a plant to treat a facial wound possibly sustained during a fight.
An orangutan in Indonesia has been observed appearing to treat a wound with a medicinal tropical plant – the latest example of how some animals attempt to soothe their own ills with remedies found in the wild.
Scientists saw the Sumatran orangutan named Rakus pluck and chew up leaves of a medicinal plant used by people throughout Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation. The adult male then used his fingers to apply the plant juices to an injury on the right cheek. Afterwards, he pressed the chewed plant to cover the open wound like a makeshift bandage, according to a study in Scientific Reports that was released on Thursday.
Previous research has documented several species of great ape foraging for medicines in forests to heal themselves, but scientists had not previously seen an animal treat itself in this way.
“This is the first time that we have observed a wild animal applying a quite potent medicinal plant directly to a wound,” said co-author Isabelle Laumer, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour in Konstanz, Germany.
The observations took place in the Gunung Leuser National Park on the Indonesian island of Sumatra when the researchers spotted Rakus had an injury in June 2022. They believe he had been hurt while fighting with rival male orangutans.
