Uganda chimps self‑medicate with healing plants

Wild chimpanzees in Uganda’s Budongo forest have been recorded using plants to treat wounds and injuries on themselves and others.

Scientists from Oxford University, working alongside local teams, captured footage showing chimps applying plants directly to open cuts, either by dabbing or chewing the material before placing it on the injury.

This new research builds on earlier findings that chimpanzees choose specific plants to self-medicate and adds to growing evidence that primates use natural remedies to stay healthy in the wild.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, includes a detailed catalogue of how chimpanzees apply this “forest first aid” behavior.

Lead researcher Elodie Freymann said, “There is a whole behavioural repertoire that chimps use when they’re sick or injured to treat themselves and maintain hygiene.”

She described how chimps “dab the plants on their wounds or chew them up, and then apply the chewed material to the open injury.” One remarkable moment captured on video shows a young female chimp chewing plant material and carefully applying it to a wound on her mother’s body.

The researchers also uncovered records of chimps tending wounds of unrelated animals, which Freymann said is exciting because “it adds to the evidence that wild chimpanzees have the capacity for empathy.”

The study draws on decades of observations, including notes from a field station logbook in Budongo forest, located northwest of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

This research highlights how chimpanzees use natural medicine to protect their health and care for others in their community.