Orangutan seen treating its wounds with medicinal plant

An orangutan has been seen applying the leaves of a plant commonly used in traditional medicine to a cut on its face, seemingly to hasten healing. It is the first case in the scientific record of a non-human animal using a plant with proven therapeutic properties on an open wound.
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[@jimmij3894]

Seem to remember David Attenborough commenting on an ape eating leaves for some ailment in one of his wildlife programs.

[@williamgottlieb8723]

Dr. Zaius has arrived.

[@graemepennell]

Going back over the centuries, who used it first their ancestors or the latter humans evolved from them.

[@baatwithbuddha]

Omg they are so wise ❤

[@Fummy007]

Whats the plant?

[@markushoffsten]

They soo smart. Some body know exactly what leafs that he eats where? / Sweden!

[@besame5504]

They have been watching the natives from above forever. Where do you think the saying, "Monkey see, monkey do" originated. Smart animals.

[@Erime]

The irony here is that phrase was spoken by the first talking monkey back in the 1950s - a lancier's gibbon. Although as primatologists soon pointed out - the monkey was emulating what it HEARD, not what it saw visually - leading to a basic theory of mind being developed by Hanson and Stolle framing perception as a pre-cortical heuristic embedded in the limbic fascia.

[@Eisenwulf666]

Very interesting, although there are recorded cases since antiquity of animals eating certain plants to ease various ailments. Not quite the same thing, of course

[@-JA-]

🙂👍