The Doctor is IN

🦧🐛 Chimpanzees regularly perform first aid on themselves and each other, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology.

• Starting in 2019, researchers in the Central African country of Gabon studied a population of 45 wild chimps living in the local rainforests.
• Over a 15-month period, they observed nearly 80 instances where the animals would grab an insect, stun it using their mouth, and gently apply the bug to an open wound on their body. It’s the first evidence of any non-human species applying insects to a wound.
• In three of those instances, the chimps applied their homemade insect poultice to a different group members’ injuries, which many say could end a long-running debate over whether chimps can display prosocial behavior.
• The study’s authors have yet to identify the type of insect these chimps are using, but they’ve narrowed it down to a species that’s less than a quarter-inch long and can fly.

+Zoom out: ​​Researchers have previously recorded self-medicating behaviors among chimps, such as chewing plant pith and swallowing whole leaves to kill intestinal parasites.