ANIMAL DOCTORS

New research suggests that orangutans self-medicate and ants perform life-saving surgery on injured nest-mates

ORANGUTAN, HEAL THYSELF Dr Isabella Laumer from the Max Planck Institute in Germany has recorded the first evidence of a creature in the wild treating an injury with a medicinal plant. Members of her team were working in the Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, when they spotted Rakus, a male Sumatran orangutan, applying a paste of leaves to a large wound on his cheek, which they believe he received fighting another male. He was chewing the stem and leaves of plant called akar kuning, known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, then smearing the pulp of chewed leaves onto the wound until it was fully covered. The team kept Rakus under observation and saw that the wound showed no sign of infection and closed within five days. After a month,…

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