Orangutan heals its wound

[jaingorenard]

I found this absolutely fascinating. I love orangutans, I really wonder if they've ever exhibited this behaviour before (other great apes have in the past).

Wounded orangutan seen using plant as medicine

It is the first time a creature in the wild has been seen using a medicinal plant to treat a wound.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Servant King]

Really hoping that orangutans don't have an FDA equivalent in their societies. Poor dude's gonna find the hammer coming down on him good and fast otherwise!

 

[AJL67]

Bill Gates is already buying up all of those plants to create a CMO version of them, add a bunch of other crap to them and push it on the public. Other than that yes the story is very cool because it seems apparent that the primate knew what it was doing by chewing the leaves and putting the mush on the wound that then healed without any infection in just a few weeks, much faster and cleaner than if it was untreated.

 

[gubbyduffer]

Thats interesting. There is a clip from BBC's Earth series of David Attenborourgh with an orangutan that had learned certain behaviour through watching human activity. He is sitting next to an orangutan attempting to hammer nails into a piece of wood. The orangutan also uses a panel saw to attempt to saw a piece of timber. That's pretty impressive.

 

[mawnansmiff]

I too found this a fascinating story so kudos to the anthropologists for bringing it to our attention.

It just goes to show that learning through doing is not just a human thing. It also suggests we are not so far removed from the apes as some might think.

Jay.

 

[MattRVA]

20 years ago I read a book about animal intelligence and I remember a few stories about the orangutans… one was about them getting out of their cage by making twine out of their own hair and fashioning a crude rope to somehow aid in escaping. Another about them using a boat to cross a river and then securing the boat back to the tree like the humans. My memory has failed me but the impression those stories had stuck with me. Amazing creatures… thanks for the post.

 

[kcghost]

This is an incredible story!!

 

[brian64]

Really hoping that orangutans don't have an FDA equivalent in their societies.

Don't be silly...they haven't devolved to our level yet.