It has been observed that wild chimpanzees self -medicate their wounds with plants, provide medical help to other chimpanzees and even eliminate others from the traps left by human hunters, suggests new research.
The behaviors, which are documented in a new study published in the magazine Frontiers in Evolution and Ecology on Wednesday, provide new clues about the origin of medical care in humans.
The study combines historical data and approximately eight months of new observations, including many captured in video and photos. It provides additional evidence that our closest living relatives will chew plants and apply improvised poultice to wounds, clean the wounds of other animals licking them and use leaves for a hygienic exfoliant after sex or defecation. Chimpanzees was also pressed and medicinal leaves in wounds.
The results, particularly because they provide evidence that chimpanzees that do not take care of each other, add a new fuel to the debate about whether humans are the only species capable of providing prosocial or altruistic care to others.
“One of the things that humans have clung is that we are this very special species, because we are capable of altruism and we are capable of empathy,” said Elodie Freymann, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the first author of the study. “Animals are helping each other. They are able to identify others in need and then address those specific needs.”
Chimpanzees and bonobos, another kind of primates, are the genetic relatives closest to humans. The study adds to a growing research body that suggests that the concept of medical care could have evolved millions of years ago, before humans were a species.
“It is likely that our shared common ancestor would also have been capable of these care behaviors,” Freymann said.
A growing research body suggests that other animal species could be self -medicated, with different levels of sophistication. Elephants have been shown, for example, consume leaves used for medicinal purposes by humans, and some researchers suggest that animals are addressing specific needs, such as digestion.
The volume of research on animal medication behaviors is increasing and external researchers said this is an important evidence that could open a window to the past of our humanity.
“In our ancestors, we have examples of medical care in humans from the Neanderthals or even before, but the very interesting thing is that we still do not completely understand how they evolved this type of exploratory behaviors,” said Alessandra Mascaro, a primatologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Osnabrück in Germany, which did not participate in the document. “We are scratching the surface.”
In 2022, Mascaro published a study that shows that chimpanzees in Gabon applied insects to their wounds, and expects more observations to help determine how animals developed that behavior.
Studying medication behaviors for chimpanzees is a challenging job because behaviors are relatively rare.
In this study, Freymann spent two four -month periods in the Budongo forest in Uganda, following the wild chimpanzees familiar enough with human researchers to ignore their presence. It can be physical and demanding to follow the chimpanzees.
“There may be days in which you are sitting at the base of a tree while they eat for eight hours, and there may be days when you are piracy vines and crossing rivers and you are stuck in the clay wells: your day is completely determined by what the group feels,” said Freymann, who would take notes about what the chimpanzees eaten, if they were sick or injured and how the animals interacted.
Freymann observed several cases of Chimpanzee care behaviors during his field work. He also found a historical registration book of observations held at the research field site, which presented cases that did not fit in previous research studies. He found medical care patterns dating from the 1990s.
“When people group their results and observations, you can begin to see these incredible stories in sight,” he said.
Among its own observations, the registration book and additional data sources, Freymann documented 41 cases of wound care in chimpanzees, including 34 self -care incidents and seven care for others, according to the study. Four care cases for others involved animals that were not closely related.
“The findings show that some types of prosocial behavior towards the no such can be more widespread than was thought,” said Isabelle Laumer, primatologist and cognitive biologist at the Max Planck Institute for animal behavior in Germany, which did not participate in the new research. “More detailed investigation is needed.”
Mascaro, who investigated the health behavior of chimpanzees in Gabon, said that new research in Uganda showed that chimpanzees in different geographies exhibited medical care behaviors, which reinforces the confidence that behavior is common in the entire geography of the species.
“We didn’t know much about chimpanzees on that side of Africa,” Mascaro said.
Self -medication has been documented in other primates. Laumer published a study last year that shows an orangutan in Indonesia repeatedly chewing the leaves and applying the material to a wound in the face to heal a wound received in a fight. The plant that the orangutan used to meditate does not usually eat for the species, but humans know as an analgesic.
This line of research, in general, suggests that primates are able to find and determine the medicinal value of plants.
“Chimpanzees trust the forest, not only for food, and not only for the shelter, but really as a first aid kit,” Freymann said, adding that it is important to preserve the forest resources on which primates depend.
He added that humans probably learned from these creatures and evolved a meaning for medicinal plants in the past. And he suggested that pharmaceutical companies could use the knowledge of these animals to identify useful medical resources in the future.
“If we want to perfect these incredible medicinal resources, observing and learning from animals is an incredibly effective way to do so if ethics and responsible is done,” Freymann said.
