Doctors by Nature

‘What happens when animals get sick? Do they rely exclusively on their bodies own defense systems to protect them, or are there other behaviors they can use to heal themselves? Humans have been using plants, fungi, and other natural mechanisms to treat ailments and disease for millennia--why not animals too? It turns out they do! In 1987, primatologist Michael Huffman noticed an ill chimpanzee collecting shoots of a plant called Vernonia amygdalina, which humans in the area used to treat stomach upset and fever. The ill chimpanzee removed the plant‘s outer bark and sucked on the soft inner branches. Within 24 hours, she appeared to have largely recovered. Although there have been stories about animals medicating themselves, and traditional healers have looked to animals to help develop treatments for years, Huffman‘s observations are widely considered the first official scientific evidence of an animal actively medicating itself to treat disease. Since then, scientists have found conclusive evidence for medication in all manner of species--including bees, ants and butterflies, as well as monkeys, birds, apes, and elephants. Self-medication behaviors (for which scientists have developed a rigorous field definition) range from prophylactic consumption of anti-parasitic berries by monkeys and therapeutic use of alkaloids by woolly bear caterpillars, to blue jays‘ use of ant-produced formic acid as bug-repellent. In Animal Doctors, Professor of Biology and science communicator Jaap de Roode will provide an overview of the scientific study of animal self-medication, drawing on both the scientific literature and first-person interviews with key contributors to the field to ask how animals use medication against the parasites and pathogens that ail them‘--