- Wild chimpanzees have been seen using “forest first aid“
- Academics believe they seek out medicinal plants
- They use them on themselves and sometimes on other chimps
Wild chimps have been observed seeking out and using specific plants that boast various health benefits.
Academics who first noticed these advanced behaviors have labelled them “forest first aid”. The name was inspired by the health benefits offered to the chimps by the plants.
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Chimps have been seen using plants with medicinal qualities to help treat open wounds and other ailments. They’ll often use them on themselves directly but have also been seen sharing them with others in their group.
These observations are the culmination of years of study which have recently been published in a journal titled Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. This report catalogues the ways that chimps have been seen to use “forest first aid” over the years.
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It’s not just chimpanzees that have been seen using this technique either. Orangutans and gorillas have also been observed seeking out plants with natural medicinal qualities to help themselves stay healthy in the wild.
How do chimps use “forest first aid”?
A lead researcher involved with this new study expanded on this unusual discovery in a chat with the BBC. Here, Lead Researcher Elodie Freymann explained that chimpanzees sometimes put bits of chewed-up medicinal plants in open wounds.
Freeman explained that 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 continued. “The chimpanzees dab them on their wounds or chew the plants up, and then apply the chewed material to the open injury.”
Chimpanzees experience empathy, report suggests
In addition to witnessing a young female chimp applying plant matter to an injury on its mother’s body, the research group also found evidence of chimps helping animals that they weren’t even directly related to.
According to Freymann, this suggests that chimps could feel desires to help others that they’re close to. “It adds to the evidence that wild chimpanzees have the capacity for empathy,” said the researcher.
Elsewhere, this decades-long study has also found evidence of chimps using leaves to clean up after themselves after going to the toilet.
