Researchers have observed chimps giving each other bug band-aids. 

Chimpanzees in Gabon, West Africa, have been recorded applying insects to their wounds and the wounds of others.

Some experts argue the finding is evidence that chimpanzees have the capacity for prosocial behaviours linked with empathy in humans.

In November 2019, Alessandra Mascaro, a volunteer at the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project, observed a chimpanzee named Suzee inspecting a wound on the foot of her adolescent son, Sia, catching an insect out of the air, putting it into her mouth, and then applying it onto the wound. 

Researchers of the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project had been studying this group of chimpanzees in Loango National Park for 7 years but had not witnessed behaviour like this before. 

Ms Mascaro took a video of the mother and son and showed it to her supervisors, Tobias Deschner, a primatologist with the project, and Simone Pika, a cognitive biologist at Osnabrück University.

“In the video, you can see that Suzee is first looking at the foot of her son, and then it’s as if she is thinking; ‘What could I do?’, and then she looks up, sees the insect, and catches it for her son,’” Ms Mascaro says. 

The Ozouga team began to monitor the chimpanzees for this type of wound-tending behaviour after its first sighting. Over the next 15 months, the team documented 76 cases of the group applying insects to wounds on themselves and others.

This is not the first time that nonhuman animals had been observed self-medicating. Researchers report that bears, elephants, and bees do it too. 

What is remarkable is that so far, insect applications have never been observed and that the chimps not only treat their own, but also the wounds of others.

Dr Pika argues that the act of applying an insect to another’s wounds is a clear example of prosocial behaviour - behaviour that acts in the best interests of others, rather than just oneself. 

“This is, for me, especially breathtaking because so many people doubt prosocial abilities in other animals,” she says. 

“Suddenly we have a species where we really see individuals caring for others.”

The research team does not know exactly which insects the chimpanzees are using or what their medicinal properties are. 

“Humans use many species of insect as remedies against sickness—there have been studies showing that insects can have antibiotic, antiviral, and anthelmintic functions,” says Dr Pika. 

The researchers have also theorised that the insects might have soothing properties that could provide pain relief.

The Ozouga team now aims to identify the insects being used by the chimpanzees and to document who is applying insects to whom. 

“Studying great apes in their natural environments is crucial to shed light on our own cognitive evolution,” says Dr Deschner. 

“We need to still put much more effort into studying and protecting them and also protecting their natural habitats.”

More details are accessible here.