Apparently animals can be doctors, too

Get ready for some monkey great ape-business: Scientists in Indonesia have observed an orangutan applying a plant with medicinal properties to a wound as sort of a topical salve, which marks the first time this behavior has ever been documented in the animal kingdom.

What happened: In June 2022, researchers monitoring a group of ~150 orangutans noticed an adult male named Rakus, who had an open wound on his "cheek" likely obtained in a fight, doing the animal equivalent of taking himself to the doctor.

Rakus was seen chewing the stem and leaves of a plant called Fibraurea tinctoria, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties and is used locally by humans to treat pain, malaria, and dysentery – but rarely consumed by orangutans. He then removed the mass from his mouth, and spent ~7 minutes lathering the substance all over his cheek wound.

• The wound closed within five days, with no signs of infection. And it healed completely within a month.

How did this behavior come about? Scientists don’t know for sure, but have two leading theories. The first is that it’s a learned behavior taken from elsewhere, since male orangutans typically live far away from where they were born. The other is a trial- and- error- based theory, which basically says the plant’s properties were discovered by luck one day when an orangutan touched an open wound while eating the plant.

🩺 Zoom out: Other animals have also played doctor, they just haven't self-medicated in this purposeful, specific way.

+Semi-related reading: Scientists are pushing a new standard for animal consciousness.