Researchers discovered wounds on the face of a male orangutan they named Rakus in the Indonesian rainforest. They watched in amazement as he treated the wounds with herbs.
Weapons/Suaq Project
hide title
Switch title
Weapons/Suaq Project
Researchers discovered wounds on the face of a male orangutan they named Rakus in the Indonesian rainforest. They watched in amazement as he treated the wounds with herbs.
Weapons/Suaq Project
When a wild orangutan in Indonesia injured his cheek, he did something that surprised researchers: He chewed the leaves of a plant known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, applied the juice to the open wound, and then used the leaves as an analgesic. medicine.
“This case is the first known case of active wounding of a wild animal with a medicinal plant,” biologist Isabelle Laumer, lead author of a paper on the discovery, told NPR Treated cases.
She said she was “very excited” about the orangutans’ apparent innovation, which was documented at the Suaq Balimbing research site in Gunung Leser National Park in northwestern Sumatra, where about 150 orangutans live in protected rainforest. .
The orangutan was named Rakus. Laumer said he may have been seriously injured in a fight with a rival male. Days later, he was seen using a plant to treat his injuries. The wound subsequently healed and did not appear to be infected.
Laumer and another researcher, Caroline Schuppli, led a team of cognitive and evolutionary biologists from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany and the National University of Indonesia.
What happened?
About a month after applying the medicine to the wound, Lacus had completely healed, leaving only a slightly obvious scar. This photo was taken about two months after the injury was first discovered.
Safruddin/Suaq Project
hide title
Switch title
Safruddin/Suaq Project
About a month after applying the medicine to the wound, Lacus had completely healed, leaving only a slightly obvious scar. This photo was taken about two months after the injury was first discovered.
Safruddin/Suaq Project
On June 22, 2022, Lacus was found to have fresh wounds. From that point on, his behavior became increasingly intentional and specific.
It took Rakus 13 minutes to eat the plant, then he spent seven minutes chewing the leaves but instead of swallowing, he applied the plant’s juices to the wound. When flies began to land on his wounds, Lacus completely covered the wounds with leaf material and continued to eat the plants.
Within five days, the wound closed. By July 19, about a month after the injury, “the wound appeared to have completely healed, leaving only a faint scar,” biologists said in a paper published Thursday in Scientific Reports.
If Lacus was his own nurse, he also seemed to be a good patient: The day after he initially used the leaves, the orangutan discovered the plant again and ate more of the leaves. He also got much more rest than usual, which researchers say may have given his body a better chance of recovery.
What plants are used as medicine?
some pictures fiber black tincture Leaves, leave. The photo on the right shows Rakus eating more leaves in a day after applying plant netting to his wounds.
Saidi Agam/Suaq Project
hide title
Switch title
Saidi Agam/Suaq Project
some pictures fiber black tincture Leaves, leave. The photo on the right shows Rakus eating more leaves in a day after applying plant netting to his wounds.
Saidi Agam/Suaq Project
Its common name is Akar Kuning (fiber black tincture). It is a type of vine, a vine that climbs into the canopy of trees to get sunlight. The plant has analgesic, antipyretic, and diuretic properties; in traditional medicine in the region, it is used to treat illnesses ranging from dysentery to diabetes to malaria.
Analysis of the phytochemicals found “the presence of furanoditerpenes and protoberberine alkaloids, which are known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antioxidant and other biological activities related to wound healing,” the researchers said. .
“It also contains jatrorrhizine (anti-diabetic, antibacterial, antiprotozoal, anticancer and antihyperlipidemic properties…) and palmatine (anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral properties),” the paper states.
So, what does this plant taste like? We asked Laumer if she’d tried it herself.
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “Suaq’s orangutans rarely eat it (only 0.3% of all ~390,000 feeding scans).”
Who is Lacus?
Youtube
Rakus is a male Sumatran orangutan believed to have been born in the late 1980s, meaning he was about 32 years old when he was seen applying leaves to his wounds. He was first spotted in the area in March 2009.
His self-treatment was extremely rare: “In 21 years and 28,000 observation hours,” the researchers said, observers at the research station had never seen an orangutan use leaves to treat wounds.
Rakus is not from the forest, where he was seen tending to his injuries.
“Male orangutans disperse long distances from their birthplace during or after puberty, either establishing a new habitat in another area or moving between habitats in other areas,” Shoupli said in a press release about the discovery. move.
“Therefore, this behavior may be exhibited by more individuals in the natal population outside the Suaq study area.”
Nearly two years after being injured, LaCous is thriving.
“He’s now one of the dominant men in this field of research,” Laumer told NPR.
What is “ointment behavior”?
Rakus provided medical care to himself by chewing the leaves and applying them to the wounds on his cheeks. His injury healed without infection, leaving a barely noticeable scar.
Weapons/Suaq Project
hide title
Switch title
Weapons/Suaq Project
Rakus provided medical care to himself by chewing the leaves and applying them to the wounds on his cheeks. His injury healed without infection and left a barely noticeable scar.
Weapons/Suaq Project
The paper states that Lacus’s seemingly innovative behavior suggests that “medical wound treatment may have originated in the common ancestor of humans and orangutans.”
Wounds may be treated with: fiber black tincture The accident was a lucky one, the researchers said, noting that the plant has powerful analgesic properties and adding that by applying the ointment, the orangutan’s main goal may have been to protect the wound from flies.
But the paper adds that because orangutans are believed to increase their skills through social learning as they reach adulthood, treatment strategies may “also be socially transmitted between individuals.”
Might Rakus share his medical knowledge with other apes? This involves cultural social issues. In the past, orangutans in Sumatran have demonstrated the ability to share innovative ideas, with popular behaviors spreading until they reach natural boundaries such as rivers.
These findings may lead to new insights into primate self-care and the evolution of medicine.
Great apes, humans’ closest living relatives, have been documented eating certain plants for their therapeutic or anti-parasitic properties. The researchers also note that in Gabon, chimpanzees have been seen applying small insects to wounds, although they note that “the efficiency of this behavior remains unknown.”
“The treatment of human wounds was most likely first mentioned in a medical manuscript from 2200 B.C., and included cleaning, plastering, and dressing wounds with certain wound care substances,” Shoupli said in the press release.
Noting that humans, as well as African and Asian great apes, all act to treat wounds, she noted, “There may be a common underlying mechanism for the recognition and application of substances with medical or functional properties to treat wounds. Our last common ancestor already exhibited similar forms of ointments.” Behavior.
