Wild orangutan in Indonesia appears to use medicinal plant to disinfect wound: 'Likely self-medication'

An orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant — the latest example of how some animals attempt to soothe their own ills with remedies found in the wild, scientists reported Thursday.

Scientists observed Rakus, a wild male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, pluck and chew up leaves of a medicinal plant used by people throughout Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation. The orangutan then used his fingers to apply the plant juices to an injury on the right cheek. Afterward, he pressed the chewed plant to cover the open wound like a makeshift bandage, according to a new study in Scientific Reports.

Previous research has documented several species of great apes foraging for medicines in forests to heal themselves, but scientists hadn't yet seen an animal treat itself in this way.

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