A male Sumatran orangutan in Indonesia appeared to heal a wound to its face using specific leaves in a rare instance of animal self-medication in the wild, a study published Thursday showed.
Rakus the orangutan — born sometime in the 1980s — was observed in the Gunung Leuser National Park in South Aceh, Indonesia, selectively eating the stem and leaves of the climbing plant Fibraurea tinctoria, locally known as Akar Kuning/Akar Palo/Yellow Root, on June 25, 2022, according to the study. Rakus also repeatedly rubbed the plant juice from its mouth onto a fresh open wound on its flange just below its right eye within thirteen minutes.
Rakus possibly got the wound from a fight with some other male orangutans, as there were sounds of fighting before the observation, the scientists reported in the study. When flies bothered his facial wound, Rakus covered it all up with the green plant…
