A male orangutan has scientists going bananas -- 'cause the primate treated his face wound with a medicinal plant ... which seems to have been intentional, a first for scientists.
A male orangutan has scientists going bananas -- 'cause the primate treated his face wound with a medicinal plant ... which seems to have been intentional, a first for scientists.
The primate hails from Indonesia -- its name is Rakus, BTW -- and researchers say it got into a fight back in 2022 ... which left him with a particularly bad face wound in the form of a bad gash near his right eye.Officials followed Rakus around for the next few days and observed some bizarre behavior for an ape ... seeing the orangutan chewing up a particular liana plant -- which is not normal food for this species. As it turns out ... the plant ended up having healing powers.
What scientists don't yet know ... whether this is something Rakus stumbled upon accidentally -- or if it's cultural/learned behavior all orangutans are taught/inherently know as instinct.Researchers have seen animals using medicine before, FWIW ... but never as intentionally as this instance seems to be.
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Orangutan observed using a plant to treat an open woundAndrew Paul is Popular Science‘s staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has had recent work featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, as well as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He lives outside Indianapolis.
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