Victoria Gil
BBC science
Chimpanzees in Uganda have been filmed using medicinal plants, in a variety of ways, to treat open wounds and other injuries.
In a follow-up to last year's discovery that chimpanzees consciously seek out and eat certain plants for self-healing, scientists tracked and observed these animals to determine how they cope with injuries.
Scientists from the University of Oxford, in collaboration with a team from the Budonga Forest, filmed chimpanzees using plants as "forest first aid", both on themselves and occasionally on other individuals of their species.
Their study, which also included an analysis of decades of records by other researchers, has been translated into a catalog of the different ways chimpanzees use natural forest resources for care and healing.
Researchers say that this study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, provides further evidence that primates, including chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, use natural remedies in a variety of ways to maintain health in the wild.
Lead researcher Elodie Freyman explains that there is “a whole repertoire of behaviors that chimpanzees use when they are sick or injured to self-medicate and maintain hygiene.”
"Some of these behaviors involve the use of plants that grow here in the forest."
"Chimpanzees put them directly on wounds or chew them first, then apply the chewed plant material to the open wound."
Watch the video: Wild chimpanzees use medicinal plants for "first aid"
Researchers analyzed footage of a very young female chimpanzee chewing on plants and then applying it to a wound on her mother's body.
They also found records of chimpanzees treating the wounds of other individuals to whom they were not related.
This, as Dr. Freiman explains, is particularly exciting “because it provides further evidence that chimpanzees in the wild have empathy.”
Some of the hundreds of recorded observations that Dr. Freyman and her colleagues studied came from the logs of a field station in the Budongu Forest.
This diary contains anecdotal information dating back to the 1990s.
It is a book in which local collaborators, researchers, and visitors have been recording descriptions of interesting chimpanzee behaviors they have observed for years.
The book also includes stories about chimpanzees putting leaves on wounds and helping other individuals remove snares from their limbs.
Some astonishing hygiene habits that resemble those of humans have also been recorded.
One field book entry describes a chimpanzee using leaves to wipe after defecating.
This team of researchers had previously identified some of the plants that chimpanzees consciously sought out and ate when they were injured.
Scientists took samples of these plants, tested them, and discovered that most of them had antibacterial properties.
Chimpanzees are not the only great apes to show knowledge of herbal medicine.
A recent study documented an orangutan in the wild using chewed plant material to treat a wound on its face.
Scientists believe that studying the behavior of these monkeys in the wild, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the plants they use when they are sick or injured, can help in the search for new medicines.
Dr Elodie Freiman tells BBC News that the more we learn about chimpanzee behaviour and intelligence, "the more we realise how little we humans actually know about the natural world".
"If someone left me here in this forest now, without food or medicine, I doubt I would survive for long, especially if I were injured or sick."
"But the chimpanzees are comfortable here, because they know how to access the secrets of this place and how to find everything they need to survive in their environment."
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