KarunaNews Story

For wounded chimpanzees, help sometimes comes in the form of first aid given by other chimps. Primatologist Elodie Freymann of the University of Oxford and colleagues saw this happen often over 30 years in Uganda’s Budongo Forest, recording 34 incidents from the 1990s through 2022, Some were hygienic acts. Some resembled first aid applied after attacks by other chimps, or being caught in human-laid snares. Licking wounds and dabbing them with leaves were the most observed acts. In one display, a male freed an unrelated female from a snare set for game. In 2021, a chimp named Kirabo put chewed-up bark on his wounded knee. In 2008, a young female named Night, observing her mother Nambi nurse a vaginal injury after a violent attack, copied the technique — applying a chewed and folded leaf to Nambi’s swollen area. But for most injured chimps, a helping hand doesn’t come, and Freymann doesn’t understand why. “If chimps sometimes know how to help others get out of snares, for example, why aren’t they helping all chimps get out?” she asks.