Scientists working in Indonesia observed an orangutan intentionally treating a wound on its face with a medicinal plant, the first time this behavior has been documented.
Rakus, a male Sumatran orangutan, treated a wound on his face by chewing leaves of a climbing plant called Akar Kuning and repeatedly applying the juice to it, according to an article published in Scientific Reports magazine on Thursday (2).
Rakus then covered the wound with the chewed leaves, which are used in traditional medicine to treat diseases such as dysentery, diabetes and malaria, the scientists said.
The study’s lead author, Isabelle Laumer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, told CNN that the team was “very excited” by their observations, which took place in June 2022 in the Suaq Balimbing research area in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia.
Although other wild primate species are known to swallow, chew or rub themselves on plants that have medicinal properties, scientists have never seen them used to treat fresh wounds.
The team believes that Rakus intentionally used the plant to treat his wound, as he applied it repeatedly in a process that researchers say lasted several minutes.
“This possibly novel behavior presents the first report of active wound management with a biologically active plant in a great ape species,” she said.
Researchers believe Rakus likely suffered the wound in a fight with another male orangutan, which is rare in the area due to “high food availability, high social tolerance among orangutans, and relatively stable social hierarchies,” Laumer explained.
This means that orangutans rarely suffer injuries, giving researchers few opportunities to observe this behavior.
As for how Rakus would have learned to treat a wound, one possibility is “accidental individual innovation,” Laumer said.
The orangutan may have accidentally touched its wound while feeding on the plant and felt immediate pain relief due to its analgesic — pain relieving — effects, causing it to repeat the behavior, she explained.
Another possible explanation is that Rakus learned to treat a wound from other orangutans in the area where he was born, Laumer said.
The observation “provides new insights into the existence of self-medication in our closest relatives and into the evolutionary origins of wound medication more broadly,” Laumer added, raising the possibility that wound healing could originate in a common ancestor. shared by humans and orangutans.
Researchers plan to closely observe other injured orangutans in the area to see if the behavior is repeated, said Laumer, who added that the results highlight the similarities between humans and orangutans.
“We are more similar than different,” she said. “We hope this study will raise awareness about their critically endangered status in the wild.”
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