Oxford team catalogues chimpanzee forest first aid
ResearchSocial Sciences
Published
19 May 2025
Researchers led by Dr Elodie Freymann, of the Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, have observed chimpanzee communities in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, helping each other with wound care and hygiene. These findings contribute to understanding the cognitive and social foundations of healthcare amongst humans.
Oxford University researchers, alongside a local team of scientists studying chimpanzees in Budongo Forest, Uganda, have observed that these primates don’t just treat their own injuries, but care for others, too — information which could shed light on how our ancestors first began treating wounds and using medicines.
The new study, ‘Self-directed and prosocial wound care, snare removal, and hygiene behaviours amongst the Budongo chimpanzees’, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, joins a growing body of evidence that chimpanzees use medicinal plants to stay healthy.
Although chimpanzees elsewhere have been observed helping other community members with medical problems, the persistent presence of this behaviour in Budongo could suggest that medical care among chimpanzees is much more widespread than previously known, and not confined to care for close relatives.
Dr Elodie Freymann, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, said: ‘Our research helps illuminate the evolutionary roots of human medicine and healthcare systems. By documenting how chimpanzees identify and utilize medicinal plants and provide care to others, we gain insight into the cognitive and social foundations of human healthcare behaviours.’
More:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-05-19-oxford-team-catalogues-chimpanzee-forest-first-aid