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Washington (AFP) – How to treat a wound? For a human, the reflex will be a priori to disinfect it, then to protect it with a bandage.
In some chimpanzees, the method can be more surprising: it will involve catching insects and applying them directly to the open wound.
For the first time, scientists have observed this behavior in chimpanzees in Gabon, who use it not only to treat their own wounds, but also those of their congeners.
The discovery, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, makes an important contribution to the debate regarding the ability of chimpanzees — and animals in general — to selflessly help their fellow human beings.
“When you read in your biology books all the amazing things that animals can do, (…) I think it might really be something like that, that will end up in the books as general knowledge,” he said. enthusiastic with AFP Simone Pika, biologist at the University of Osnabrück in Germany and co-author of the study.
The starting point dates back to 2019, when an adult female is filmed inspecting a wound on the foot of her offspring, an adolescent chimpanzee.
She suddenly grabs an insect, immobilizes it in her mouth where she seems to be pressing it, then applies it to the wound. After extracting the insect from the wound, she repeats the operation twice.
The scene takes place in Loango National Park, which borders the Atlantic Ocean in western Gabon, and where researchers are studying a group of 45 central chimpanzees, an endangered species.
Subsequently, over a period of fifteen months, scientists saw chimpanzees perform this same technique no less than 19 times, on themselves.
And on two other occasions, they observe injured chimpanzees being treated in the same way by a congener, or several at the same time.
The wounds, sometimes several centimeters wide, can result from conflicts between individuals in the group, or with other neighboring groups.
Far from protesting, the bruised chimpanzees let it go.
“It takes a lot of confidence to apply an insect to an open wound,” marvels Simone Pika. “They seem to understand that with this bug, their wound will get better. It’s amazing.”
– Soothing properties? –
Researchers have not identified which insect was used, but believe it to be a flying insect given the rapid movement the chimpanzees make to catch it.
They believe that this insect potentially contains substances “which might have an anti-inflammatory or even soothing function”, explains Simone Pika.
Insects are well known to have various medicinal properties. Further work will be required to determine the insect in question here and its function, as well as the effectiveness of the method.
Self-medication behaviors have already been observed in other animals (birds, bears, elephants, etc.), for example through the ingestion of plants.
But the chimpanzees use this technique here, including to help other individuals.
However, part of the scientific community “still doubts” the ability of animal species to have so-called prosocial behaviors, that is to say mutual aid without expectation of compensation, explained Simone Pika.
Here, the chimpanzees have nothing to gain, she stressed.
So why do they do it? In humans, prosocial behavior is generally linked to empathy.
It might be that this same feeling is also at play in chimpanzees, but “we don’t know”, warns the researcher, cautious. “It is a hypothesis that we must study.”
© 2022 AFP
