{"id":97004,"date":"2024-07-18T10:49:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T10:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/18\/wild-medicine-an-orangutan-treated-his-wound-with-a-local-plant\/"},"modified":"2024-07-18T10:49:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T10:49:30","slug":"wild-medicine-an-orangutan-treated-his-wound-with-a-local-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/18\/wild-medicine-an-orangutan-treated-his-wound-with-a-local-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild medicine! An orangutan treated his wound with a local plant"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"592\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png?fit=592,240&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Wild medicine! An orangutan treated his wound with a local plant\" title=\"Wild medicine! An orangutan treated his wound with a local plant\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n<p>For the first time, an orangutan has been seen doctoring a wound. Scientists describe it as the first evidence of a wild <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-024-58988-7\" rel=\"noopener\">animal caring for a wound using a natural substance that\u2019s known to aid healing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers shared their discovery May 2 in <em>Scientific Reports<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The team had been studying great apes in Indonesia\u2019s Gunung Leuser National Park. Some 150 orangs live in its Suaq Balimbing research area. Scientists have been studying these animals since 1994. In June 2022, Ulil Azhari was watching a male Sumatran orangutan (<em>Pongo abelii<\/em>) named Rakus.<\/p>\n<section class=\"newsletter-signup__wrapper___lZ0W1 wp-block-house-ads wp-block-newsletter-signup\">\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@1x.png 1x,&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.png 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@1x.png 1x,&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png 2x\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__container___srNOL\" data-component=\"newsletter-signup\">\n<h3 class=\"newsletter-signup__heading___0EHmb\">\n\t\t\tEducators and Parents, Sign Up for The Cheat Sheet\t\t<\/h3>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__message___pemaq\">\n<p>Weekly updates to help you use <em>Science News Explores<\/em> in the learning environment<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"newsletter-signup__thankyou___K6GGN\">Thank you for signing up!<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-signup__error___hCsJI\">There was a problem signing you up.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>The ape was chewing on a thick woody vine, or liana. The animal then rubbed the liana paste onto an open cheek wound that was several days old. He likely got it in a fight with another male. Rakus applied the paste several times over the span of about seven minutes. Then he smeared pulp from the plant\u2019s leaves over his injury. He used those leaves almost like a bandage.<\/p>\n<p>Local people, it turns out, use the same plant (<em>Fibraurea tinctoria<\/em>) in traditional medicine. It\u2019s known to slow or limit the growth of bacteria and to fight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-inflammation\">inflammation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Isabelle Laumer is a cognitive biologist on the research team. She works at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany. After reading Azhari\u2019s notes, she recalls \u201cimmediately getting very excited.\u201d This ape, she points out, \u201conly treated his wound and not any other body part. And this was done repeatedly.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image  has-aligncenter\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/050224_di_orangutan-wound_inline.jpg\" alt=\"orangutan gash under eye closed\" class=\"wp-image-3139388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/050224_di_orangutan-wound_inline.jpg 680w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/050224_di_orangutan-wound_inline-511x383.jpg 511w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/050224_di_orangutan-wound_inline-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/050224_di_orangutan-wound_inline-248x186.jpg 248w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/050224_di_orangutan-wound_inline-263x197.jpg 263w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/050224_di_orangutan-wound_inline-560x420.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3139388\">Rakus was seen munching on liana leaves again the day after he applied a paste to his facial wound that he had treated with the same plant. The gash had completely closed about five days after the treatment, with no signs of infection.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3139388\">Saidi Agam<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>That wound closed within five days of being treated. And it never got infected. The orang\u2019s focused effort convinced Laumer that Rakus\u2019s use of the liana paste to treat his gash had been deliberate. It showed purpose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of [published reports] about animals applying things to areas that hurt,\u201d says zoologist Michael Huffman. He works at Nagasaki University, in Japan, where he has studied primate self-medication for decades. \u201cBut this, I think, is the first published paper,\u201d he says, \u201cwith details of both the chemical properties of the plant and the progress of the treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Laumer says she hopes her team\u2019s finding will make people care more about protecting orangutans. One look at these apes and you understand how they got their name. \u201c<em>Orang<\/em>\u201d means person in the Malay language. \u201c<em>Hutan<\/em>\u201d means forest. The apes\u2019 human likeness doesn\u2019t stop with their bright eyes, mustache and beard. Yet all three species of orangutans are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iucnredlist.org\/search?query=orangutan&amp;searchType=species\" rel=\"noopener\">critically endangered<\/a>. \u201cIt would be so sad,\u201d she says, \u201cif they would vanish from this world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/orangutan-treated-wound-plant-medicine\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time, an orangutan has been seen doctoring a wound. Scientists describe it as the first evidence of a wild animal caring for a wound using a natural substance that\u2019s known to aid healing. Researchers shared their discovery May 2 in Scientific Reports. The team had been studying great apes in Indonesia\u2019s Gunung [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[2307,39789,43100,5642,7882,11084,10694],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97006,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97004\/revisions\/97006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}