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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

#71

Post by Intralexical »

codethief wrote: post #2

I know I'm humanizing Rakus here but I'd like to think that, when he kisses the tree towards the end of the video, he does so out of gratitude for helping him. :-)

Apparently orangutans do kiss to show affection. And the lips are probably full of nerve endings for foraging purposes anyway. So who knows, maybe he was actually kissing that tree to show some kind of positive emotion, whether it's a kind of reciprocal appreciation similar to what we'd consider "gratitude" for helping him, something associative on a simpler level for making him feel better, or maybe a different, uniquely orangutan emotion that we don't have the words for.

> I know I'm humanizing Rakus here

Out of all the species on this planet, orangutans probably have some of the emotions that are the closest to human emotions. Like, would you expect Ancient Greeks to have emotional experiences that are recognisable to you? What about Cro-Magnons? Neanderthals? Australopithecines? Where do they stop being people with rich inner lives, and turn into animals driven by instinct?

Orangutans are tree-dwelling (semi)social fruit eaters, like we were not that long ago. If you set the Tree of Life to "Zoom to Fit", we'd blend right together. "Humanizing" would be if you were talking about an octopus, a fish, or a protozoan. Different humans at different extremes already experience emotions in vastly different ways; I don't think it's unthinkable or odd that the median individual in such a closely related species might have experiences which we can relate to.

But also he looked to me like he was chewing in the last couple seconds, so maybe the other commenter saying he was just eating ants was right lol.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#72

Post by _yb2s »

andoando wrote: post #69
_yb2s wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Mine too. Just munches on grass on every walk, never seen her throw up. I think she just likes it.

I think humans have a hard time understanding animal behavior, and consistently underestimate their intelligence because we don’t understand or relate to their motivations and interests.

We take our values and motivations as objective facts, and don’t even consider that maybe dogs enjoy eating grass, and also aren’t that interested in the weird sounds humans like to make with their mouths.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#73

Post by balls187 »

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.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#74

Post by retrac »

_yb2s wrote: post #58
hnick wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd considered the dog eating grass thing as more of a now-disputed myth, but maybe someone has evidence. Either way my own dog loves munching on the taller/thicker grass every time we walk, like he's a sheep. His favourite foods also include broccoli and bok choy so that could be why. I think a lot of people downplay the role plants play in a dog's diet (not required but helpful especially with processed diets that…

I've had half a dozen dogs, and every single one of them ate grass every chance they could get- in large quantities. I also don't think it has anything to do with having an upset stomach. Dogs seem to really enjoy grass, and make it a regular part of their diet... I know they likely can't extract any calories from it, but it may have other benefits.

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 meaningful calories from at like 50 - 100 calories per pound, but there's some calories, and there's other nutrients in them too.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#75

Post by _yb2s »

retrac wrote: post #74
_yb2s wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had half a dozen dogs, and every single one of them ate grass every chance they could get- in large quantities. I also don't think it has anything to do with having an upset stomach. Dogs seem to really enjoy grass, and make it a regular part of their diet... I know they likely can't extract any calories from it, but it may have other benefits.

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…

My dog strongly disagrees with you that grass is more unpleasant than lettuce.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#76

Post by esalman »

darth_avocado wrote: post #28

Obviously orangutans are much smarter as a species, they are know to pass down knowledge/behaviors, including tool usage, down generations. But there could be more to this behavior. A dog instinctively knows to eat grass when they have stomach issues and Alaskan Bears eat certain plants to expel parasites after hibernation. How do they know? Zoopharmacognosy is a fascinating subject that needs more research. https://…

If you're fascinated by canine instincts, wait till you hear about the super generations of monarch butterflies.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#77

Post by eellpp »

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.

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

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#78

Post by jader201 »

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.

Reminded me of this tweet I saw a couple weeks ago (from our local zoo):

https://twitter.com/amazlngnature/status/1782416298636345452

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#79

Post by abathur »

scotty79 wrote: post #65
NoPicklez wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gut instinctively knows I need chocolate right after eating dinner

I have this after eating a bare steak. I think there's something about eating a lot of something that does not contain carbs that immediately turns on craving for sugar.

I had to ponder this for a minute :)

I picked up dark chocolate as a snack in early 2020, which I chose very specifically to avoid carbs. I also use cocoa powder to make low-carb ice cream for the same reason.

I guess I've used it this way for long enough now that I've broken my default association between chocolate and sugar.

Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant

#80

Post by Arete314159 »

darth_avocado wrote: post #28

Obviously orangutans are much smarter as a species, they are know to pass down knowledge/behaviors, including tool usage, down generations. But there could be more to this behavior. A dog instinctively knows to eat grass when they have stomach issues and Alaskan Bears eat certain plants to expel parasites after hibernation. How do they know? Zoopharmacognosy is a fascinating subject that needs more research. https://…

When I had thrush but didn't know it, I craved yogurt and garlic, both of which would be excellent in restoring floral balance. I don't know how bodies know these things, but they do! It's fascinating.
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