Achi news desk-
Scientists working in Indonesia have observed an orangutan deliberately treating a wound on their face with a medicinal plant, the first time this behavior has been recorded.
Rakus, a male Sumatran orangutan, treated a wound on his face by chewing the leaves of a climbing plant called Akar Kuning and repeatedly giving him the juice, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on Thursday.
Rakus then covered the wound with the chewed leaves, which are used in traditional medicine to treat diseases such as dysentery, diabetes and malaria, scientists said.
Lead study author Isabelle Laumer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, told CNN the team was “very excited” by their observations, which took place in June 2022 at the Suaq Balimbing research area in Gunung Leuser National. Park, Indonesia.
Although other wild primate species are known to ingest, chew or rub themselves with plants that have medicinal properties, scientists have never seen them used to treat recent wounds.
The team believe that Rakus deliberately used the plant to treat his wound as he used it repeatedly in a process that took several minutes according to investigators.
“This innovative behavior potentially presents the first report of active wound management with a biologically active plant in a great ape species,” he said.
Left: leaves of Fibraurea tinctoria, with a length between 15 and 17 cm. Right: Rakus feeding on these leaves. The photograph was taken on June 26, the day after the plant mesh was placed on the wound (Nature.com / Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationallicence)
Researchers believe Rakus most likely sustained the wound in a fight with another male orangutan, which is rare in the area thanks to “high food availability, high social tolerance between orangutans and relatively stable social hierarchies,” Laumer explained.
This means that orangutans rarely sustain wounds, giving researchers few opportunities to observe this behaviour.
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 his wound while feeding on the plant and felt immediate pain relief due to its analgesic – pain-relieving – effects, making him repeat the behaviour, he explained.
Another possible explanation is that Rakus learned how 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 healing more broadly,” Laumer added, raising the possibility that wound healing may have originated from a common ancestor shared by humans and orangutans.
Researchers plan to closely observe any other wounded orangutans in the area to see if the behavior is repeated, said Laumer, who added that the findings underscore the commonalities between humans and orangutans.
“We are more alike than different,” he said. “We hope this study will raise awareness of their critically endangered status in the wild.”
