Orangutan observed self-medicating to treat wound

[rogue06]

Researchers working in Sumatra observed a wild orangutan tending to an open wound on his face. The male orangutan repeatedly rubbed chewed-up leaves of a plant that they normally don't have much to do with, but is known to have medicinal properties, on a facial wound, making it the first time such self-medicating has been clearly observed in a primate

Source: In a first, an orangutan was seen treating his wound with a medicinal plant

After an orangutan hurt his face, scientists observed him chewing a plant known to relieve pain and applying a paste made from the leaves to the injury.

A facial wound on Rakus, an adult flanged male orangutan, two days before he applied a plant paste to the wound

An orangutan named Rakus hit a rough patch in the summer of 2022.

Researchers heard a fight between male orangutans in the treetops of a rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia; a day later, they spotted Rakus sporting a pink wound below his right eyelid.

A chunk of flesh about the size and shape of a puzzle piece was missing. When Rakus, who is most likely in his 30s, belted out a long call, the researchers noticed another wound inside his mouth.

Over the next several days, researchers followed Rakus at a distance — and saw something so surprising they wound up reporting it in great detail in the journal Scientific Reports.

According to their study, published Thursday, Rakus was observed repeatedly chewing on the leaves of a particular liana plant over several days. The climbing vine is not a typical food for orangutans, but it is known to humans as a pain reliever.

On at least one occasion, Rakus made a paste from the chewed leaves and applied it to his face. It’s the first time an animal has been seen applying medicine to a skin wound.

Rakus feeds on Fibraurea tinctoria leaves a day after he applied the plant mesh to the wound

“It’s the first documentation of external self-medication — the application of leaves, I would argue, as a poultice, like humans do to treat wounds and pains,” said Michael Huffman, an associate professor at the Wildlife Research Center at Kyoto University in Japan, who was not involved in the new study.

Rakus’ wound never showed signs of becoming infected, and it closed up within a week.

The discovery is new evidence that orangutans are able to identify and use pain-relieving plants. A growing body of research suggests other animal species also self-medicate, with varying levels of sophistication.

The researchers behind the study think that great apes’ ability to identify medicines and treat wounds could trace back to a shared ancestor with humans.

New evidence that orangutans self-medicate

The discovery was possible only because Rakus spends his days in a protected area of rainforest called the Suaq Balimbing research area, in Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park.

Researchers have been observing orangutans there since 1994. Today, about 150 call the area home. Rakus, who was first observed there in 2009, is either a resident or a frequent visitor.

Scientists often follow an individual orangutan in the area from early morning — when it leaves its night nest — until it builds a new night nest about 12 hours later.

“We don’t disturb the orangutan,” said an author of the new study, Isabelle Laumer, a primatologist and cognitive biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany. “They completely tolerate us following them.”

Laumer said that researchers had never before observed orangutans in the area self-medicating like Rakus did and that it was not clear how he developed the behavior.

It’s possible Rakus learned to treat his wound through “individual innovation,” Laumer said, after he accidentally touched a finger to a wound with the pain-relieving leaf juice. Or he may have learned the behavior culturally, from other orangutans, early in life.

Orangutans learn socially and have been shown to be capable with tools. They develop sophisticated knowledge of foods from their mothers.

“They learn a lot about, for example, what types of fruit to eat, where to find them, when to find them, when they are ripe, how to process them,” Laumer said. “Some orangutans feed on up to 400 different plants. … This is quite some intensive knowledge that they actually need to acquire.”

Did humans learn about medicinal plants from animals?

Evidence of animal self-medication has mounted in recent decades.

In the 1960s, the famous primatologist Jane Goodall noticed that chimpanzees in Tanzania were eating whole leaves from a plant later identified as a type of Aspilia shrub. Decades later, Huffman wrote a paper describing how a different population of chimpanzees ate the bitter pith of a particular daisy, but only rarely and when other behaviors suggested they were sick.

Researchers think chimps developed such behaviors to treat or prevent parasites.

In the 1990s and the 2000s, a flood of research identified additional examples of self-medication.

A notable 2008 study of Bornean orangutans documented three females rubbing their bodies with a paste of chewed Dracaena cantleyi plant, which local Indigenous people use to address joint and bone pain.

Huffman said he thinks all animal species self-medicate to some degree. Researchers have even documented the practice in insects.

“It shows us that animals have control over their lives,” he said. “That they can behave in ways that are flexible, that are adaptive to certain circumstances that come down to their very survival.”

He theorized that ancient humans derived the ability to identify medicinal plants and substances from close observations of animals.

“A lot of medicine that humans have used over in our history as a species have come from our close connection with nature and looking to other animals for advice and extrapolating from what we’ve learned,” Huffman said. “I don’t know of any plant that an animal has been documented to be using as medicine that isn’t also used by humans. And I think that it’s the humans who have learned from the animals.”

Laumer said her team’s findings — in a species that is 97% genetically similar to humans — could offer insight into how ancient primates developed their inclination to pursue medicines.

“It’s possible that our last common ancestor already showed similar forms of ointment behavior,” she said.

Laumer added that the new findings also show how much can be learned from orangutans, who are considered critically endangered. The rainforests where Sumatran orangutans live are vanishing as land is converted to agriculture and climate change intensifies wildfires.

The latest estimates, from 2016, suggest fewer than 14,000 are left.



Source

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The entire paper, Active self-treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan can be read by clicking the link, although I've posted the abstract from it below:

Abstract

Although self-medication in non-human animals is often difficult to document systematically due to the difficulty of predicting its occurrence, there is widespread evidence of such behaviors as whole leaf swallowing, bitter pith chewing, and fur rubbing in African great apes, orangutans, white handed gibbons, and several other species of monkeys in Africa, Central and South America and Madagascar. To the best of our knowledge, there is only one report of active wound treatment in non-human animals, namely in chimpanzees. We observed a male Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) who sustained a facial wound. Three days after the injury he selectively ripped off leaves of a liana with the common name Akar Kuning (Fibraurea tinctoria), chewed on them, and then repeatedly applied the resulting juice onto the facial wound. As a last step, he fully covered the wound with the chewed leaves. Found in tropical forests of Southeast Asia, this and related liana species are known for their analgesic, antipyretic, and diuretic effects and are used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases, such as dysentery, diabetes, and malaria. Previous analyses of plant chemical compounds show the presence of furanoditerpenoids and protoberberine alkaloids, which are known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, antioxidant, and other biological activities of relevance to wound healing. This possibly innovative behavior presents the first systematically documented case of active wound treatment with a plant species know to contain biologically active substances by a wild animal and provides new insights into the origins of human wound care.

[Sparko]

Dogs eat grass when they have an upset stomach.

[shunyadragon]

Dogs eat grass when they have an upset stomach.

Did the dog tell you that was the reason he/she ate grass?

[Ronson]

Wild orangutan believes man is in distress and tries to help him out of a swampy river.

orangutan.jpg

[shunyadragon]

Wild orangutan believes man is in distress and tries to help him out of a swampy river.

orangutan.jpg

Sounds like the Boy Scouts that helped the Old Lady cross the street. It took four scouts, because she did not want to cross the street.

[shunyadragon]

More on Orangutan communication:

Source: https://scitechdaily.com/hidden-complexity-unlocking-the-mysteries-of-orangutan-communication/

Hidden Complexity: Unlocking the Mysteries of Orangutan Communication

TOPICS:CommunicationLanguagePrimates
MAY 14, 2024

A new study reveals the diverse vocal patterns of Bornean orangutans, identifying three distinct pulse types in their long calls. This research advances our understanding of orangutan communication and highlights the complexity of vocalization in the animal kingdom.



Researchers uncover the diverse vocal patterns of Bornean orangutans, identifying three distinct pulse types in their long calls, and emphasizing the complexity of animal vocalizations.

New research published in PeerJ Life & Environment, scientists have revealed the intricate vocal patterns of Bornean orangutans, shedding new light on the complexities of their communication. Titled “Vocal Complexity in the Long Calls of Bornean Orangutans,” the research, led by Dr. Wendy Erb from the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, unveils the remarkable diversity and variability within orangutan long call vocalizations.
Understanding Orangutan Communication


Orangutans, the charismatic great apes of Southeast Asia, are known for their complex social behaviors and vocal communication. However, understanding the nuances of their vocal repertoire has posed a significant challenge for researchers. Dr. Wendy Erb and her team embarked on a pioneering journey to decipher the mysteries of orangutan vocalizations, and their findings are set to revolutionize our understanding of these remarkable primates.

The Motivation Behind the Study

Dr. Erb, a primatologist specializing in the behavior and communication of wild primates, explained the motivation behind the study: “Our research aimed to unravel the complexities of orangutan long calls, which play a crucial role in their communication across vast distances in the dense rainforests of Indonesia. Over the course of three years, we accumulated hundreds of long call recordings, revealing a fascinating array of vocal diversity.”

Methodology and Findings

The study employed a multidimensional approach, combining traditional audio-visual methods with state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. Dr. Erb and her team meticulously analyzed the long calls of 13 individual orangutans, aiming to determine the number of pulse types present in their vocalizations and evaluate their gradation.

“Through a combination of supervised and unsupervised analytical methods, we identified three distinct pulse types that were well differentiated by both humans and machines,” Dr. Erb elaborated. “While our study represents a significant step forward in understanding orangutan communication, there is still much to uncover. Orangutans may possess a far greater repertoire of sound types than we have described, highlighting the complexity of their vocal system.”

Broader Implications and Future Research


The research not only deepens our understanding of orangutan communication but also underscores the broader concept of vocal complexity in the animal kingdom. Dr. Erb emphasized the collaborative effort behind the study, acknowledging the dedication of her team and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in scientific research.

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