How chimpanzees use primitive medicine to treat each other's wounds: Chimp mother is spotted applying an INSECT to a cut on her son's foot
If you had a wound on your foot, it's likely you'd opt for a bandage or a plaster.
But a new study suggests that chimpanzees use a slightly more disgusting option when faced with a wound - insects. Researchers from the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project have spotted a chimpanzee mother applying unidentified insects to a wound on her son's foot for the first time.
The adult chimp, named Suzee, was seen inspecting a 0.7 inch (2 cm)-long open wound on the foot of her adolescent son, who the team refer to as Sia.
Suzee went on to catch an insect out of the air and placed it temporarily in her mouth, before applying it to Sia's wound. Suzee later extracted and reapplied the bug twice.
While the team are unsure exactly what kind of insect Suzee used, they believe it may have been used for wound cleansing or pain relief. Researchers from the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project have spotted a chimpanzee mother applying unidentified insects to a wound on her son's foot for the first time.
The adult chimp, named Suzee, was seen inspecting a 0.7 inch (2 cm)-long open wound on the foot of her adolescent son, who the team refer to as Sia.
Suzee went on to catch an insect out of the air and placed it temporarily in her mouth, before applying it to Sia's wound. Suzee later extracted and reapplied the bug twice.
While the team are unsure exactly what kind of insect Suzee used, they believe it may have been used for wound cleansing or pain relief.
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Researchers from the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project have spotted a chchimpanzee mother applying unidentified insects to a wound on her son's foot for the first time The study was led by evolutionary biologist Alessandra Mascaro of both the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project, who had been studying the chimps in Loango National Park for seven years.
'In the video, you can see that Suzee is first looking at the foot of her son, and then it's as if she is thinking — "What could I do?",' she explained.
'Then she looks up, sees the insect, and catches it for her son.
'This is, for me, especially breathtaking because so many people doubt prosocial abilities in other animals.
'Suddenly we have a species where we really see individuals caring for others.'
Having spotted this behaviour once, the team set out to see if they could observe more instances of the same.
While this was the only example of a mother–child pairing involved in wound treatment, the researchers noted 76 cases over the following 15 months of the apes applying insects to either their own or others' wounds.
Despite not knowing which insects the chimpanzees are using to dress wounds, the superficially disgusting habit may have various benefits, the team said.
'Humans use many species of insect as remedies against sickness,' explained paper author and cognitive biologist Simone Pika of Osnabrück University in Germany.'There have been studies showing that insects can have antibiotic, antiviral, and anthelmintic functions.'
The researchers have also proposed that the insects being used by the chimpanzees may have soothing properties, providing the primates with pain relief.
With their initial study complete, the researchers are now keen to both identify the specific species of insects that the chimpanzees are using as wound treatments, and document exactly who is applying the dressings to whom.
The researchers noted 76 cases over a 15 month period of the apes applying insects to either their own or others' wounds. Pictured: an adult male chimp captures an insect (highlighted in A), places it between his lips (B) and brings his head close to the wound (C). He then uses his lips to apply the insect to the wound (D) before moving it around (E) and grooming around it (F)
'Studying great apes in their natural environments is crucial to shed light on our own cognitive evolution,' said paper author and primatologist Tobias Deschner of the the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project. Pictured: a chimpanzee female, Roxy, applies an insect to a wound on the face of an adult male named Thea
'Studying great apes in their natural environments is crucial to shed light on our own cognitive evolution,' said paper author and primatologist Tobias Deschner of the the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project.
'We need to still put much more effort into studying and protecting them and also protecting their natural habitats.'
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Current Biology.
Researchers from the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project caught the tender act on video while studying a group of the primates in the Loango National Park, in Gabon
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