How animals heal themselves

Researchers observed how an orangutan in Indonesia treated itself with a medical plant. The great ape chewed the plant, applied its juice onto the wound and used its leaves as a plaster. Within a week, the wound had healed. The plant, known locally as Akar Kuning, is used as a medicine by people in Indonesia.

Animals use remedies found in nature to take care of wounds or get rid of parasites. The process of animals healing themselves is called zoopharmacognosy. Researchers have observed chimpanzees in Gabon, West Africa, treat their wounds — just not with plants.

Several chimpanzees in Loango National Park, the researchers noted, caught insects in the air, squeezed them between their lips and then applied the insect to open flesh wounds. What stood out — they didn't just treat their own wounds, but also those of other chimpanzees, as seen here. This suggests that the primates are capable of pro-social behaviors that benefit others.

The American black bear knows about the healing powers of the osha root. Biologist Shawn Sigstedt, who observed the animals in northern New Mexico, found that they use the root to treat their arthritis pain. He says the region's Indigenous people first learned about the root's healing powers from the bears after observing them use the plant hundreds of years ago.

If you own a dog, you've seen self-medication in action. Dogs eat grass when they have an upset stomach. They'll usually vomit it back up or excrete it undigested shortly after ― for them, the grass is a way to get rid of pathogens or parasites.

Researchers are aware of more than 200 bird species who like to sit in anthills and make bathing-like movements with their wings to attract ants. Through this process of "anting," the birds cover themselves with formic acid, which rids their feathers of microorganisms like fungi and bacteria.

Pregnant lemurs in Madagascar nibble on bark and leaves from fig and tamarind trees, which contain components that help with the lemurs' milk production, kill parasites and increase the chances of the animal giving birth successfully.

An elephant is pregnant for 22 months ― longer than any other animal. No wonder they're ready to get the baby out by the end of that! In Kenya, heavily pregnant elephants were seen deviating from their usual routes to chomp on trees from the boraginaceae family, and then giving birth shortly after. Kenyan women also use the plant to induce birth.

Along with self-healing, animals also turn to Mother Nature for intoxication. Reindeer in Finland and Siberia get high by eating Amanita muscaria, also known as fly amanita. Shamans of the Sami people used the hallucinogenic mushroom when herding the reindeer, allowing them to reach a prophetic trance in which they said they could communicate with the animals.

While filming a BBC documentary, researchers observed dolphins "playing" with a puffer fish, nudging it back and forth between them for up to half an hour. The puffer fish was spared, unlike the fish caught as prey, which the dolphins tore into quickly. The puffer fish, under distress, released a toxin that put the dolphins into a trance that saw them drifting just under the water's surface.