[Animals] Chimps have been seen treating wounds with insects. They're not the only animals to practice 'medicine'

[FazzNoth]

In a forest in the west African nation of Gabon, a chimp researcher called Suzee plucks an insect from the air with a deft sweep of her hand.

She kills the insect, but then rather than discarding it, applies its crushed body to a wound on the foot of Sia, her adolescent son.

She's not the only one to do this. The same behaviour — applying a crushed insect to their own and others' wounds — is observed in the chimp group 22 times over 15 months.

The researchers who documented the behaviour in Current Biology earlier this week weren't able to capture any of the insects to analyse, but hypothesise they perhaps contain a property that helps with wound recovery.

If they're right, this is an example of animals practising a form of self-medication, also known as zoopharmacognosy. 

And it's not the only case we know about.

Mosquitoes biting? Try a millipede
What would you rather — being bitten by mosquitoes or rubbed all over with a millipede? For capuchin monkeys from South America, it seems the latter.

Several studies have found different wild po[CENSORED]tions of South American capuchin monkeys and captive capuchin monkeys rub themselves with millipedes.

The millipedes contain defensive chemicals, including benzoquinones, that have been shown to repel mosquitoes.

The monkeys have been recorded applying the millipede treatment more often in the wet season when mosquitoes were more abundant, as well as sharing the same millipede around.

In one study, when tissues soaked in benzoquinones were offered to captive monkeys, in the absence of any millipedes, they rubbed their bodies with the tissue and "drooled profusely", according to the lead researcher.

While the hypothesis is that they use the compounds to repel mosquitoes, the problem, according to Bill Foley, who is an expert in the interactions between poisonous plants and animals, is in how we confirm these observations.

"The problem with understanding medicinal plant usage has always been experimental confirmation," said Emeritus Professor Foley from the ANU.

He says there is some evidence in easily controlled species like sheep that they can self-medicate, but that wild animals are much harder to study.

"Obviously, there is little chance of experimental mani[CENSORED]tions in chimps!"

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