Crushed insects to treat wounds.
A team of researchers from the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project has seen for the first time in the Loango National Park in Gabon (Africa) a chimpanzee mother applying unidentified insects (flying, yes) to a wound on the leg of her adolescent calf after putting it in the mouth, crush it and then apply it to the open area of about 2 centimeters of the little chimpanzee. This action was performed repeatedly by the adult chimpanzee named Suzee to her infant Sia .
Experts aren’t sure what type of insect Suzee used, but they are convinced it may have been used to clean the wound or relieve pain. This is completely new behavior; Chimpanzees had never been observed using animal matter to heal themselves.
The surprising discovery is published in an article in the journal Current Biology, by a team of researchers from the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project. In their study of 45 chimpanzees, the experts explain how they saw various individuals catching, crushing and applying insects to their own wounds and to the wounds of other members of the group.
In fact, over the course of 15 months, they saw this same behavior happen a total of 22 times : 19 with animals tending to their own injuries (often bitten by remains between group members or with strangers), and three times with a chimpanzee. attending to another. In each situation, the chimpanzees began the ‘procedure’ by catching an insect, squashing it, and then rubbing it on the wound, sometimes multiple times.
This behavior closely resembled what scientists call self-medication. It is not unusual in nature; many animals do , like wild red-and-green macaws that eat clay for better digestion or pregnant elephants that can eat certain leaves to induce labor. But the Ozouga scientists say no one has ever seen animals self-medicate with an insect to treat an open wound before. We humans would disinfect the wound and cover it with a bandage. Chimpanzees seem to have invented a rather more creative method . And, far from protesting against this treatment, the bruised chimpanzees were happy to be treated by their companions with these crushed insects.
Why do they do it?
In humans, the fact of helping another person to heal a wound comes from the prosocial behavior associated with empathy. But what about chimpanzees? Likewise? Scientists say that this is a circumstance to study further.
“Human beings use many species of insects as a remedy against diseases,” says cognitive biologist Simone Pika, from the University of Osnabrück in Germany and leader of the work. “There have been studies showing that insects can have antibiotic, antiviral and anthelmintic functions.”
Referencia: Simone Pika, Application of insects to wounds of self and others by chimpanzees in the wild, Current Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.12.045. cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(21)01732-2
