For the first time, an orangutan was seen healing itself with a medicinal plant, scientists say.
Scientists saw an orangutan named Rakus chew up leaves from a medicinal plant that has been used to treat pain as well as inflammation in Southeast Asia, according to a new study in Scientific Reports, per The Associated Press. Rakus was seen taking the plant’s liquid with his fingers. He then put the liquid on an injury he had along with the chewed plant leaves as a bandage.
The plant Rakus used as a climbing plant called Akar Kuning, CNN reported.
Scientists say that its liquid is used to treat diseases like dysentery, diabetes and malaria, according to The New York Times.
“This is the first time that we have observed a wild animal applying a quite potent medicinal plant directly to a wound,” said co-author Isabelle Laumer, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, according to the AP.
Rakus was believed to have been hurt in a fight with another male orangutan, according to CNN. Injuries are often rare for orangutans due to “high food availability, high social tolerance between orangutans and relatively stable social hierarchies,” study lead author Isabelle Laumer, a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior said.
It’s also rare that orangutans eat the plant, the Times reported. Rakus’ injury was closed after about five days and it was healed less than a month later.
Laumer said that Rakus possibly learned how to treat his injury on accident, according to CNN. He may have been eating the plant and then accidentally touched his injury with the liquid and felt some pain relief. The liquid from this plant is like an analgesic. He probably remembered that pain relief and was able to repeat it again.
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