Washington. To heal wounds, chimpanzees catch insects and apply them directly to the affected area.
Scientists observed this behavior in chimpanzees in Gabon, on the central Atlantic coast of Africa, and noted that they not only use insects to treat their wounds, but also those of their peers.
The research, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, is an important contribution to the debate about the ability of chimpanzees, and animals in general, to selflessly help others.
It’s like “when you go to school and read in your biology books about the amazing things that animals can do,” explained Simone Pika, a biologist at the University of Osnabruck in Germany and co-author of the study. “I think this could really be something that ends up in those books.”
The project began in 2019, when an adult chimpanzee named suzee inspect a wound on your teen’s foot.
Suddenly, suzee he caught an insect in the air, put it in his mouth, apparently squeezed it, and then applied it to his son’s wound about three times.
The scene occurred in the Loango National Park, on the Atlantic coast of Gabon, where researchers are studying a group of 45 central chimpanzees, a common subspecies, in danger of extinction.
Over the next 15 months, the scientists watched the chimpanzees give themselves the treatment at least 19 times.
On two other occasions, they observed that injured chimpanzees were treated in the same way by one or more of their peers.
The wounds, sometimes several centimeters wide, can come from conflicts between members of the same or opposing groups.
Far from protesting the treatment, the bruised were happy to be treated.
“It takes a lot of trust to put a bug on an open wound. They seem to understand that if you do this to me with this animal, my wound will get better. It’s amazing,” Pika said.
The researchers have not been able to identify which insect was used on the wounds, but believe it to be a flying one due to the chimpanzees’ rapid movement to catch it.
Possible anti-inflammatory substance
Pika says that the insect could contain anti-inflammatory substances with a calming effect.
Insects are known to have various medical properties and researchers will need to detect and study the insect in question.
Birds, bears, elephants and other animals have already been observed to self-medicate, for example by eating plants.
But what is unique about chimpanzees is that they not only treat themselves, but also help others.
Some scientists still doubt, however, the ability of animal species to exhibit prosocial behaviors, such as selflessly caring for others, Pika added.
But here the chimpanzees have nothing to gain, he stressed. So why do they do it?
In humans, prosocial behavior is generally related to empathy.
Could the same sentiment be present in chimpanzees? Pika wondered.
“It is a hypothesis that we must investigate,” he said.
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