When people are sick, there are doctors; pets are sick, there are pet doctors; domestic animals are sick, there are veterinarians. Wild animals will not be finished when they are sick, they will treat themselves, there are similarities, among which high-IQ chimpanzees and elephants can be called "divine doctors".
Zoologist Hoffman once studied chimpanzee behavior in Uganda, Africa, and accidentally found that chimpanzees would see themselves.
A chimpanzee, sick and looking weak, walked slowly to a bush, folded a branch, nibbled off the bark, put the "bare" branch in its mouth, chewed, and sucked the sap. The shrub picked by chimpanzees is a medicinal plant that is often used locally to treat intestinal infections caused by parasites, and whoever wants chimpanzees has mastered this technique.
The zoologist continued his research, collecting feces from chimpanzees before and after nibbling on shrubs. He found that there were 135 parasite eggs in the feces before nibbling on the branches of the bush, while only 15 fecal parasite eggs were left after nibbling. It is not difficult to find that the effect of this shrub in the treatment of intestinal parasites is very obvious.
What's even more interesting is that while the elderly chimpanzees are eating herbs, the younger chimpanzees are watching intently, and if it is usual, the mischievous little chimpanzees do not have this patience. Scientists speculate that the little chimpanzees are learning the skills of curing diseases with the old chimpanzees.
When Zoologist Langham of Harvard University studied chimpanzees in Tanzania, he also found that chimpanzees have the ability to treat their own diseases, which can be called "divine doctors".
Chimpanzees here often go great distances in search of a plant called "aspilia", dismissing even when they encounter their favorite food halfway through. When the chimpanzees find the plant, they pluck a few leaves, curl them up in a ball, and put them in their mouths to swallow.
These leaves are not digested by chimpanzees, and are excreted directly after passing through the digestive tract, and their role is to adsorb parasites that roam in the digestive tract. When the chimpanzees defecate, the leaves are almost intact, but there are more parasites moving on them.
Elephants, like chimpanzees, are intelligent animals that treat themselves as well.
In western Kenya, Africa, elephants often flock to Mount Elgon, where generations of elephants have enjoyed it as if they were on a pilgrimage. Elephants lined up in rows to navigate the volcanic cave passages, crushing rocks on walls with their tusks and rolling them into their mouths with their long snouts, chewing, sometimes for hours at a time.
Scientists have found that these volcanic rocks are rich in calcium, magnesium, sodium and other elements, which is conducive to inhibiting the toxins contained in the plants that elephants usually eat, which is why elephants have to go to the volcano every once in a while.
Pregnant female elephants in Kenya often prefer an aromatic shrub and often have to walk more than 5 kilometers to eat this plant, and elephants usually disdain this plant. Scientists have observed that a female elephant took Highway 28 to find a tree, ate all the leaves of the tree, causing the entire tree to be bald, and the mother elephant successfully gave birth to a baby elephant shortly after returning to the habitat.
According to locals, local pregnant women also often pick the leaves of the plant to soak in water and drink, which is said to have the effect of inducing labor and facilitating smooth production.
In addition to elephants and chimpanzees, there are many wild animals that will treat themselves, sparrows will smoke cigarette butts to build nests, using the nicotine contained in them to expel parasites from chicks; Indonesian deer and dolphins will eat poisonous tree fruits and will go to the vicinity to find a special soil to eat, in order to absorb toxins; even domestic cats and dogs will have a little self-healing skills, many people have seen them eat grass, in fact, the stomach eats bad things, eating grass can cause vomiting, play a role in purifying the digestive tract.
One might ask, where did these animals first learn the ability to see a doctor for themselves?
Millions of dollars have a kind of animal, such as an elephant with an uncomfortable stomach, accidentally eating a piece of volcanic rock, soon the stomach is much more comfortable, and then once its stomach is uncomfortable, it will eat volcanic rock. Elephants are intelligent animals, and they pass on this experience to their children and companions, which over time become a "medical technique" passed down from generation to generation by elephants. American biologist Hunter says this is the power of natural selection.
In fact, from the process of animals learning to see themselves, we can easily see the shadow of Chinese medicine, the essence of which is the accumulation of experience, Shennong taste of hundreds of herbs can be seen as an upgraded version of elephants eating volcanic rock.
Many scientists believe that we can still learn from animals and find new and natural things with medicinal value.