2022/02/01 by A Mascaró, Lara M. Southern, Tobias Deschner +1 · 1 citation
Psychology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Animal and Plant Science Education #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.12.045
openalex publication_date 2022/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Self-medication refers to the process by which a host suppresses or prevents the deleterious effects of parasitism and other causes of illness via behavioural means 1 . It has been observed across multiple animal taxa (e.g. bears, elephants, moths, starlings) 2 , with many case studies in great apes 1 , 3 . Although the majority of studies on self-medication in non-human primates concern the ingestion of plant parts or non-nutritional substances to combat or control intestinal parasites 4 , more recent examples also report topical applications of leaves or other materials (including arthropods) to skin integuments 3 . Thus far, however, the application of insects or insect parts to an individual's own wound or the wound of a conspecific has never been reported. Here, we report the first observations of chimpanzees applying insects to their own wounds (n = 19) and to the wounds of conspecifics (n = 3).