VOA科学技术2024--Orangutan Appears to Use Plant to Treat Wound

Researchers say a wild orangutan in Indonesia appeared to use a medicinal plant to treat a wound it had suffered. The observation represents the latest example of how some animals attempt to treat their own sickness or injury with medicines found in the wild, the scientists reported recently.

The adult male orangutan lives in Indonesia's Gunung Leuser National Park. The researchers call him Rakus. They observed the animal pick and chew leaves of a medicinal plant. Then, he used his fingers to spread the plant juices across an injury on his face. Afterward¹, he used the chewed material to cover the open wound, the researchers said in a new study in Scientific Reports.

People throughout Southeast Asia use the same plant to treat pain and inflammation.

Earlier research documented several kinds of great apes looking for medicines in forests to heal themselves. However, scientists had not yet seen an animal treat itself in this way.

Study co-writer Isabelle Laumer of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, said, "This is the first time that we have observed a wild animal applying a quite potent² medicinal plant directly to a wound."

Ulil Azhari, a co-writer and field researcher at the Suaq Project in Medan, Indonesia, first recorded the orangutan's behavior in 2022. Photographs show the animal's wound healed and closed within a month.

Scientists have been observing orangutans in Indonesia's Gunung Leuser National Park since 1994, but they had not seen this behavior before.

"It's a single observation," said Emory University biologist Jacobus de Roode, who was not involved in the study. "But often we learn about new behaviors by starting with a single observation."

"Very likely it's self-medication," said de Roode, adding that the orangutan applied³ the plant only to the wound and no other body part.

It is possible Rakus learned the treatment method from other orangutans living outside the park, said co-writer Caroline Schuppli at Max Planck.

Rakus was born and lived outside the study area when he was young. Researchers believe the orangutan got hurt in a fight with another animal.

Scientists have recorded other kinds of primates⁴ using plants similarly.

Bornean orangutans rubbed themselves with juices from a medicinal plant, possibly to reduce body pains or chase away parasites⁵.

Chimpanzees in several places have been seen chewing on plants that can help ease stomach pain. Gorillas⁷, chimpanzees and bonobos swallow some kinds of rough leaves whole to kill stomach parasites.

Tara Stoinski of the nonprofit Dian Fossey Gorilla⁶ Fund said, "If this behavior exists in some of our closest living relatives, what could that tell us about how medicine first evolved?"

Stoinski had no part in the study.

Words in This Story

orangutan - n. a kind of large ape that has reddish-brown hair

potent - adj. very strong or effective

1 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

2 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

3 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

4 primates   

primate的复数

参考例句：

• Primates are alert, inquisitive animals. 灵长目动物是机灵、好奇的动物。
• Consciousness or cerebration has been said to have emerged in the evolution of higher primates. 据说意识或思考在较高级灵长类的进化中已出现。

5 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。

6 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。

7 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》