In the forests of Uganda, chimpanzees have been seen using plants to treat wounds and other injuries. These wild animals seem to know how to use their forest home as a kind of natural pharmacy. Scientists from the University of Oxford, working closely with a local team in Budongo Forest, managed to record these moments. They filmed chimpanzees using certain plants on themselves—and sometimes on others—as a form of first aid.
This study builds on previous findings which showed that chimpanzees eat specific plants when they are unwell, likely to help their bodies heal. But now, the researchers have gone further. They created a detailed record of all the different ways chimpanzees seem to use plants to care for injuries. This work helps us understand just how much these animals know about their environment.
Elodie Freymann, one of the lead researchers, explained that chimpanzees have a set of behaviors they use when they are sick or hurt. These behaviors include using plants in creative ways. The chimps chew certain plants and then apply the chewed pieces to open wounds. In some cases, they even use plants on others. The team saw one young female chimp treating a wound on her mother by carefully applying chewed leaves.
What’s even more surprising is that chimpanzees have also been seen helping chimps they are not related to. This kind of care shows that these animals may have a sense of empathy. Dr. Freymann said that this is an exciting discovery, because it adds to the idea that wild chimpanzees are capable of understanding when another animal is in pain and trying to help.
The research team didn’t just rely on recent videos. They also studied decades of written observations, some going back to the 1990s. Local field workers and visitors had written notes in a logbook at the forest station about interesting things they saw. These included chimpanzees dabbing leaves onto wounds, helping others remove traps from their limbs, and even using leaves for personal hygiene after going to the toilet. These habits seem very close to what humans might do in similar situations.
In earlier studies, the scientists had collected samples of plants that the chimpanzees chose to eat or use when they were injured. When tested in the lab, many of these plants showed strong antibacterial effects. This suggests that chimpanzees know which plants can actually help fight infections.
The research also connects with findings from other parts of the world. For example, in a different study, a wild orangutan was seen chewing leaves and putting them on a wound on its face. It’s not just chimpanzees—other great apes seem to understand how to use plants as medicine too.
Dr. Freymann spends much of her time in the forest watching the chimpanzees and recording their natural behavior. She wears a face mask while doing this, to protect the animals from catching any human illnesses. She believes that watching and learning from these animals could lead to important discoveries. Some of the plants they use might be useful for making new medicines for people.
She also says that seeing how chimps live in the forest shows how clever and connected to nature they are. While a human dropped into the forest without supplies might not survive long, chimpanzees know how to live there successfully. They understand what the forest offers and use that knowledge to stay healthy. Their survival shows just how much we can learn from the natural world—and how much we still don’t know.
