{"id":6433,"date":"2022-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=6433"},"modified":"2022-03-23T10:16:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T09:16:09","slug":"chimps-seen-treating-each-others-wounds-using-medicinal-insects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/03\/10\/chimps-seen-treating-each-others-wounds-using-medicinal-insects\/","title":{"rendered":"Chimps seen treating each other\u2019s wounds using \u2018medicinal\u2019 insects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The behaviour suggests that the apes are capable of a feeling similar to empathy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Back in November 2019, Alessandra Mascaro, a volunteer working at the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project in Loango National Park, Gabon, West Africa, saw something she couldn\u2019t quite believe \u2013 one of the apes named Suzee noticed her son Sia had hurt his foot. After seemingly thinking about the best course of action, she then plucked an insect out of the air, licked it and applied it to the wound.<\/p>\n\n

Mascaro captured the whole touching moment on film and showed her supervisors, Dr Tobias Deschner, a primatologist working for Ozouga, and Prof Simone Pika, a cognitive biologist based at Osnabr\u00fcck University.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Here, a female chimp called Roxy applies an insect to a wound on the face of a male called Thea<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The Ozouga team then set about monitoring the chimpanzees in the park and looking for other examples of the behaviour. Over the following 15 months they captured 76 incidences of the apes applying insects to wounds on themselves or other group members.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The researchers are uncertain why the chimps use the insects, or even which insects they are, but suspect they might have soothing properties that could provide pain relief.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

While animals such as bears, elephants and bees have previously been observed applying \u2018medicines\u2019 to themselves, this study marks the first time that animals have been seen treating the wounds of others.<\/p>\n\n

Pika argues that the act of applying an insect to treat another\u2019s wounds is a clear example of prosocial behaviour that echoes the acts of empathy displayed by human beings.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis is, for me, especially breathtaking because so many people doubt prosocial abilities in other animals. Suddenly we have a species where we really see individuals caring for others,\u201d Pika said. \u201cHumans use many species of insect as remedies against sickness \u2013 there have been studies showing that insects can have antibiotic, antiviral and anthelmintic [antiparasitic] functions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The team now aims to identify the insects being used by the chimpanzees and investigate who is applying insects to whom to establish whether the behaviour is based on a hierarchy.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cStudying great apes in their natural environments is crucial to shed light on our own cognitive evolution,\u201d said Deschner. \u201cWe need to still put much more effort into studying and protecting them and also protecting their natural habitats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

PHOTO: TOBIAS DESCHNER<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The behaviour suggests that the apes are capable of a feeling similar to empathy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"19","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"19","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_19-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_19-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_external_id":"March-2022-19-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"March-2022-19-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000089651||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089651||","purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-03-11T11:24:48Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"38dcd36f-c18c-41b6-bc08-08d76a9295c8","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-03-23T09:16:16Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AONzTb8GMQba8CAjXapKVyA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691.jpg",2048,1361,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691-768x510.jpg",768,510,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691-1024x681.jpg",800,532,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691-1536x1021.jpg",1536,1021,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/b548c85b-e398-4ddc-a8d6-623469dbf691.jpg",2048,1361,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The behaviour suggests that the apes are capable of a feeling similar to empathy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6433"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11008,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6433\/revisions\/11008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}