Researchers were surprised to see the orangutan using a pain-relieving plant on his own wound.
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Do you ever wonder where humans learned certain behaviors, like how to treat our own wounds? Scientists say the ancient origins of pharmacology can be learned by watching animals with whom we share common ancestors, like the orangutan.
One such lesson may have just taken place in Indonesia, where a male orangutan was seen caring for an open wound in a way humans have never seen orangutans do before.
The animal, named Rakus, had recently gone through a secondary growth spurt, as many adult orangutans do. According to a report published May 2, his new mature body was getting him in some trouble with the other males around him, and brawls began to break out.
One day, after one such brawl, scientists said they noticed an open wound on Rakus’ face, likely from the teeth of one of his rivals.
As the scientists watched, Rakus began to do something curious. He approached a plant called Akar Kuning, known to locals in Indonesia as a medicinal plant used as an analgesic, or a pain reliever. Locals use it to treat malaria, dysentery and diabetes.
However, orangutans rarely show interest in this plant.
Rakus reached out his hand, pulled a leaf from the stock, put it in his mouth and began to chew, according to the report. He did this a few more times. Then, he spit some of the chewed leaf into his hand and spread it over the gash on his cheek until the pink of the wound was covered with the leaf-mash elixir.
The researchers were stunned. They had been observing this community of orangutans for 21 years and had never seen one of them treat a wound with this plant.
The next day, Rakus did it again.
Eight days later, his wound was healed, researchers said.
Michael Huffman, an animal medication researcher, told Nature that this is the first study to “demonstrate that an animal is using a plant with medicinal properties applicable to wounds, and putting those on the wounds and consistently treating over a period of time.”
Experts like Huffman know that animals learn certain behaviors from each other. Knowledge transfers from species to species just by one animal observing something useful from another.
Humans may have long ago learned a thing or two about wound healing from animals with whom we shared habitats, Huffman said.
“Probably our ancestors were looking at other animals and learning about medicines. That information sticks and can last over generations,” he said.
Isabelle Laumer, a researcher in the study, agrees.
She told CNN that watching Rakus’ self-medication “provides new insights into the existence of self-medication in our closest relatives and in the evolutionary origins of wound medication more broadly.”
According to Laumer, wound treatment may have started with a common ancestor humans and orangutans share, and this is where we both may have learned how to heal ourselves.