A Sumatran Orangutan surprised scientists after they saw him apply a plant known for its medicinal properties to an open wound he sustained. It's the first time this has been witnessed in the wild, and scientists are fascinated.
A scientific report detailing the Orangutan using a plant as medicine was published on May 2, 2024. It's really interesting. Take a look!
According to Nature , the Orangutan's application of the plant to his injury is the first "scientific record of a wild animal healing a would using a plant with known medicinal properties."
In June 2022, scientists watched a Sumatran Orangutan in Indonesia grab a liana plant and chew it until it became a paste. The animal then took the juice from the plant he chewed up and put it on the wound just under his eye.
He was observed doing this several times until he then took all the chewed-up plant from his mouth, smeared it over the wound on his face, and left it there.
According to a study published in Scientific Reports , the Liana plant is known for its antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant qualities. And it's used in traditional and modern medicine today.
The medicine worked, too. The injury healed up, and the Orangutan avoided infection. The researchers, however, aren't sure how the Orangutan understood that doing this would help prevent infection.
“It shows that orangutans and humans share knowledge. Since they live in the same habitat, I would say that’s quite obvious, but still intriguing to realize,” Caroline Schuppli, a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, and a co-author of the study, said.
Orangutans Are 'Critically Endangered'
According to the World Wildlife Fund , there are three different species of Orangutan, the Sumatran, Borean, and Tapanuli, declared a new species in 2017.
"All three orangutan species are critically endangere d," the organization states. "It’s difficult to determine how many Orangutans are left in the world, but estimates suggest that there are just over 100,000 Bornean, fewer than 14,000 Sumatran, and less than 800 Tapanuli orangutans left."
Unfortunately, a large number of Orangutans were lost between 1999 and 2015, with estimates showing more than 100,000 were killed during that time.
"The main threat is the loss or fragmentation of their forest habitat, caused by logging for timber materials, forest fires and making way for oil palm plantations," according to the World Wild Life Fund.
The Sumatran Orangutans were reported to have lost approximately 60% of their habitat between 1985 and 2007, largely due to humans again through infrastructure, agriculture, mining, and logging.
"Expelling orangutans from their familiar, native habitat not only exposes populations to malnutrition and starvation but also leaves them vulnerable to poaching, as well as conflicts with humans over crops," Earth.org explains.
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