Scientists have spotted an orangutan using medicinal plants to tend to its own wounds. A male Sumatran orangutan named Rakus was observed by German and Indonesian scientists chewing up the leaves of a ...

As our closest non-human relatives, primates remain some of the smartest creatures in the animal kingdom. And they continue to surprise science with their knowledge. A new research paper published in ...

A male orangutan was spotted chewing up antibacterial and pain-relieving plants and applying the paste to a wound on his cheek. Scientists have spotted an orangutan using medicinal plants to tend to ...

Scientists have been observing a male Sumatran orangutan named Rakus in Indonesia's Gunung Leuser National Park since 2009. In June 2022, they noticed he had a facial wound.

Observers have documented multiple animal species using plants for self-medicinal purposes, such as great apes eating plants ...

Scientists working in Indonesia have observed an orangutan intentionally treating a wound on their face with a medicinal ...

Yet this was no ordinary medical treatment. The orangutan — dubbed "Rakus" by the scientists at Indonesia's Gunung Leuser ...

Self-medicating in animals has been reported before, but scientists noted something particularly special when they observed a ...

Biologists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany and Universitas Nasional, Indonesia observed a large male orangutan self-medicating—using a paste of chewed up plants ...