Wafric News – May 14, 2025

Budongo Forest, Uganda – In the dense canopies of Uganda’s Budongo Forest, wild chimpanzees have been filmed turning to their natural environment for healing—demonstrating a remarkable use of medicinal plants to treat wounds and illnesses.

A collaborative research team from the University of Oxford and local Ugandan scientists has documented this behaviour for the first time on camera, capturing how chimpanzees use forest plants for first aid. The footage, part of a broader study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, highlights how our closest relatives apply chewed or dabbed plant materials to open injuries—sometimes even tending to one another.

“This is not random behaviour,” said lead researcher Dr. Elodie Freymann. “These chimpanzees show a clear understanding of what to use and when. It’s a form of self-medication—and sometimes, social care.”

The study expands on earlier findings that wild chimpanzees selectively eat plants with medicinal properties. But the latest observations go further, suggesting a nuanced “first aid repertoire” in which chimps treat visible wounds and maintain hygiene.

In one powerful moment captured on video, a young female chimp is seen chewing plant material before gently applying it to an open wound on her mother’s body. In another case, a chimpanzee tended to a non-relative, adding to the growing body of evidence that these apes exhibit empathy and social intelligence.

“This kind of wound-tending behaviour, especially when it’s not directed at close kin, challenges what we thought we knew about animal empathy,” Dr. Freymann said.

The researchers didn’t just rely on recent footage. They also pored over decades of handwritten records from the forest’s field station, located northwest of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. The logbook—filled with observations by researchers, local trackers, and visitors since the 1990s—contains vivid stories: chimps using leaves to clean themselves after defecating, applying mashed-up leaves to wounds, and even removing wire snares from injured limbs.

“What’s astonishing is how human-like some of these hygiene and medical behaviours are,” noted Dr. Freymann. “They’re not just surviving—they’re actively managing their health.”

Some of the plants the chimps seek out have now been tested in labs and shown to contain antibacterial properties. Scientists believe that understanding how chimpanzees interact with these plants could guide future drug discovery.

This isn’t exclusive to chimps either. A recent study from Indonesia showed a wild orangutan using chewed leaves to treat a wound on its face—suggesting that plant-based self-medication may be widespread among great apes.

For the researchers, these behaviours underscore the depth of knowledge wild animals have about their ecosystems—and how much humans still have to learn.

“If I were dropped in this forest without supplies, I wouldn’t survive long,” Dr. Freymann told WafricNews. “But these chimpanzees thrive here because they understand how to use their environment. The forest is their pharmacy, and they know exactly how to use it.”

As science continues to uncover the wisdom of the wild, the hope is that this growing field of ethno-primatology can help protect not only these incredible animals but also the knowledge—and plants—they depend on to survive.


By WafricNews Desk.