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Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#91

Post by kragen »

alphazard wrote: post #70
mattlondon wrote: post #3

It would be nice if they could work out what this "medicinal" tree is and start mass-producing this paste because that looks like some serious healing going on there! ... or perhaps orangutans are just way better at this sort of thing that human are? I recently tripped up running and had a much smaller cut (compared to the apparent missing-chunk-of-flesh this orangutan had) on my knee that took several weeks to fully…

There's obviously a lot of nonsense that floats around in the herbal medicine community. But antimicrobial plants are relatively common, and applied topically, they do what you would expect them to. They generally aren't an antibiotic replacement because they aren't orally bio-available. They won't reach an infection in the periphery if you eat them. To make a medicinal plant more effective you can immerse a lot of i…

that's a tincture or elixir, not an essential oil. essential oils are usually obtained by steam distillation, which does not involve a solvent. and there are lots of tinctures, elixirs, and essential oils commercially available

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#92

Post by dhosek »

snikeris wrote: post #32
RenThraysk wrote: post #25

It's interesting for sure, but the mystery is how he gained that knowledge. Is he just repeating what he's seen humans do or his ancestors?

Aren’t we faced with the same fundamental mystery of human insight? Where does it come from?

I’ve often wondered how the heck did people invent soap? What made them think mix ashes and fat together and use the result to make stuff cleaner? (And that’s ignoring the fact that at a molecular level, soap is pretty amazing in and of itself.)

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#93

Post by cpeterso »

One of the most adorable TV shows I’ve seen is “Orangutan Jungle School” about the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation’s orangutan rescue/rehabilitation/release program. The series is available on a number of streaming services and many clips on YouTube.

https://orangutanjungleschool.com/

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#94

Post by grecy »

balls187 wrote: post #73

Many years ago I stopped by a zoo in France, with my 7mo son. I was pushing him in the stroller while he was napping, and at the orangutan exhibit, one came up to the window and gestured towards the stroller. I turned the stroller to face the window, and removed the hood. The orangutan blew my son a kiss, waved then went back to the otherside of its enclosure. Made me rethink what I knew about animal intelligence.

I was lucky enough to spend a bunch of time with Chimpanzees and Gorillas in Africa (mostly West Africa). I got to carry them, play with them and just chill with them in the jungle [1].

Staring into their eyes it is impossible to deny we are them and they are us. Their facial expressions, emotions, reactions, playfulness and also anger, jealousy and all the rest are incredible to be a part of. Often I was on the other side of a fence, but the times I was right in the middle of it all are something I will never forget as long as I live.

I have no doubt future generations will look back on us as heathens for keeping intelligent animals locked in cages.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfdo3s8tPUk

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#95

Post by shiroiushi »

hnick wrote: post #88
retrac wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nutrition in grass which is available to mammals like dogs (and humans). They are mostly cellulose, but plants use carbohydrates and proteins for their own structure and metabolism, and these are present in all plants in at least small amounts. Roots, shoots and fleshy stalks, are better than the leaves. Like an unpleasant, less nutritious lettuce or celery with too much fibre. Those are also hard to get mea…

The cellulose aka fibre is useful for them too, for the same reason as us, even if there are not many calories or other nutrients available. Dry food, bones, high protein diets can all benefit from a bit of bulk. I've been told that wild dogs and wolves eat the digestive contents of herbivores which is semi-digested (free range haggis!), which definitely seems true to me given how much both of mine go for rabbit/shee…

Pet dogs that live with cats are well-known to eat cat turds out of the litterbox.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#96

Post by bredren »

gonzo41 wrote: post #85
eellpp wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading this, the choice of word "exhibit" hurts

Animal prison.

Zoos are are a terrible entertainment business.

All the primates and megafauna especially, it is a tragedy.

I'm certain they'll be looked back on with shame.

Even as zoos market videos of animals "eating birthday cake" on social media.

See also zoos' dark history entwined with ethnological expositions https://archive.is/xsuEU

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#97

Post by mehulashah »

grecy wrote: post #94
balls187 wrote: post #73

Many years ago I stopped by a zoo in France, with my 7mo son. I was pushing him in the stroller while he was napping, and at the orangutan exhibit, one came up to the window and gestured towards the stroller. I turned the stroller to face the window, and removed the hood. The orangutan blew my son a kiss, waved then went back to the otherside of its enclosure. Made me rethink what I knew about animal intelligence.

I was lucky enough to spend a bunch of time with Chimpanzees and Gorillas in Africa (mostly West Africa). I got to carry them, play with them and just chill with them in the jungle [1]. Staring into their eyes it is impossible to deny we are them and they are us. Their facial expressions, emotions, reactions, playfulness and also anger, jealousy and all the rest are incredible to be a part of. Often I was on the othe…

These are magnificent creatures. There is so much more left for us to learn about them and us. Phenomenal.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#98

Post by hirvi74 »

_yb2s wrote: post #59
frogpelt wrote: post #34

Dogs eat grass when they need to throw up.

I don't think this is true- every dog I've had eats grass frequently and it doesn't usually cause them to throw up. Also- dogs can throw up on demand at any time, they don't need anything like grass to help them. This is because it is the natural way that female dogs bring home food for puppies, they vomit up the food to share it with them. I'm pretty sure dogs sometimes vomit on purpose with the explicit goal of sha…

> Also- dogs can throw up on demand at any time, they don't need anything like grass to help them.

How sure are you about this? Everything I am reading seems to disagree with this.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#99

Post by rramadass »

cpeterso wrote: post #93

One of the most adorable TV shows I’ve seen is “Orangutan Jungle School” about the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation’s orangutan rescue/rehabilitation/release program. The series is available on a number of streaming services and many clips on YouTube. https://orangutanjungleschool.com/

This is THE classic Orangutan series to watch. I think some episodes (excerpts?) are available on Youtube Smithsonian Channel. Here is one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3hJgI2UrSg

Anybody who watches these will come away with a deep appreciation of the Natural World, Darwinian Theory and how Human-like (even more than Chimpanzees/Gorillas) Orangutans are. After a while you forget that they are a different species and start laughing/crying/empathizing with these beautiful animals.

Very highly recommended to watch with your kids and entire family.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#100

Post by rramadass »

RenThraysk wrote: post #25

It's interesting for sure, but the mystery is how he gained that knowledge. Is he just repeating what he's seen humans do or his ancestors?

> Is he just repeating what he's seen humans do

This is most probably the main reason. However there is some debate on whether these learned behaviours can be passed across generations.

Here is David Attenborough showing Orangutans washing clothes/using soap/tools/etc. mimicking what they have seen Humans in their environment do - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFACrIx5SZ0

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