Do Animals Self-Medicate?

Do Animals Self-Medicate?

Posted on June 29, 2023



Analysis by Tessa Lena
Via Dr Mercola

Story at-a-glance

• “Zoopharmacognosy” is a type of animal behavior in which animals self-medicate
  
• Many species of animals are known to select and ingest or topically apply plants, soils and insects with medicinal properties, in order to prevent or reduce the harmful effects of pathogens, toxins, etc.
  
• Baboons in Ethiopia eat the leaves of a plant to combat the flatworms that cause schistosomiasis
  
• Fruit flies lay eggs in plants containing high ethanol levels when they detect parasitoid wasps, a way of protecting their offspring
  
• Red and green macaws, along with many animals, eat clay to aid digestion and kill bacteria
  
• Pregnant elephants in Kenya eat the leaves of some trees to induce delivery
  

People often assume that animals are “passive” beings who know nothing and don’t have cognitive processes like we do. Personally, I think it’s very arrogant to think that. Any pet owner or anyone who spends time around animals knows that animals have personalities and emotions just like us, and that their behavior is usually “thought through.”

Zoopharmacognosy

In the 1980s, a new branch of science was born, dedicated to “zoopharmacognosy,” meaning “animals’ knowledge of medicine.” In the words of the wildlife researcher Michael Huffman, it stands for “what an animal does to maintain homeostasis and how not to feel bad.”
The discipline came out of the scientists’ observations of animals medicating themselves. On a side note, it is fascinating to me how human beings have been aware of this type of animal behavior for millennia — and even learning about certain plants by watching animals self-medicate — but the buzzword, the “scientific” term for it appeared only when credentialed western experts said so. A funny world!

Animals Treat Themselves Against Parasites

Surprise! Many animals rid themselves of parasites by using substances and plants with rough surfaces to clean and “detox” — and by seeking out and eating medicinal herbs.
For example, giant humpback whales have been recently caught on camera rolling around on sandy seabeds, “to shed parasites that live on their skin, known as ectoparasites, which can make the whales less hydrodynamic.” A number of primates seem to seek out medicinal plants to fight pathogens and eliminate parasites.
Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) select plants with high ethanol content for laying eggs when in the presence of endoparasoid wasps — whose “babies” feed on fruit fly “babies” but die from consuming too much ethanol. When detecting endoparasitoid wasps, fruit flies lay their eggs in leaves with high ethanol content as a means of protection for their offspring.¹
These wasps, especially those of the Leptopilina genus, inject their eggs in approximately 80% of fruit fly larvae.² As the wasp eggs develop, they consume the larvae. As the wasps are consuming more of the larvae, they also consume more ethanol, which kills the wasps. This type of behavior is called “transgenerational prophylaxis.”³
Adult monarch butterflies prefer to lay their eggs on toxic plants such as milkweed, which reduces parasite growth in their offspring caterpillars. Pigs love to wallow in the mud, and one of the reasons they do it is to get rid of external parasites.
Woolly bear caterpillars (Grammia incorrupta) are sometimes lethally infected by tachinid flies. If infected, they ingest plant toxins called pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which confers resistance against the flies. Notably, parasitized caterpillars are more likely than non-parasitized caterpillars to specifically ingest large amounts of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and excessive ingestion of these toxins reduces the survival of non-parasitized caterpillars.⁴
Sparrows have been noticed to integrate cigarette butts into their nests. Researchers believe that it is not a random choice of nesting material, and that the sparrows have somehow figured out that nicotine residue impedes parasitic mites. The tobacco hornworm ingests nicotine which reduces colony growth and toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis, leading to increased survival of the hornworm.⁵
Ants infected with Beauveria bassiana, a fungus, selectively consume harmful substances (reactive oxygen species, ROS) upon exposure to a fungal pathogen, yet avoid these in the absence of infection.^6,7
According to a 2022 paper published in European Journal of Wildlife Research, during cold and rainy seasons, the crested porcupines (Hystrix cristata) in Central Italy often become infected by different species of ectoparasites and endoparasites. During this time porcupines actively seek out a rather large variety of medicinal plants, mostly with antiparasitic properties. Those plants appear to be relieving the symptoms of the infections, for example, inflammation.⁸
More than 200 species of song birds “wipe” themselves with ants, a behavior known as “anting.” Birds either grasp ants in their beaks and wipe them along the spine of each feather down to the base, or sometimes roll in ant hills so the ants crawl through their feathers. Birds most commonly use ants that spray formic acid. In lab tests, this acid is harmful to feather lice. Its vapor alone can kill them.^9,10
Here is what the 2014 article titled, “Animals that self-medicate,” published on the NIH website, had to say:

“A wide range of animals self-prescribe the plants around them when they need a remedy.

• Bears, deer, elk, and various carnivores, as well as great apes, are known to consume medicinal plants apparently to self-medicate.
  
• Some lizards are believed to respond to a bite by a venomous snake by eating a certain root to counter the venom.
  
• Baboons in Ethiopia eat the leaves of a plant to combat the flatworms that cause schistosomiasis.
  
• Fruit flies lay eggs in plants containing high ethanol levels when they detect parasitoid wasps, a way of protecting their offspring.
  
• Red and green macaws, along with many animals, eat clay to aid digestion and kill bacteria.
  
• Female woolly spider monkeys in Brazil add plants to their diet to increase or decrease their fertility.
  
• Pregnant lemurs in Madagascar nibble on tamarind and fig leaves and bark to aid in milk production, kill parasites, and increase the chances of a successful birth.
  
• Pregnant elephants in Kenya eat the leaves of some trees to induce delivery.
  

In the 1960s, the Japanese anthropologist Toshisada Nishida observed chimpanzees in Tanzania eating aspella leaves, which had no nutritional value. Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham saw the same behavior at Jane Goodall’s Gombe reserve, where chimps were swallowing leaves whole … In 1996, biologist Michael Huffman suggested the chimps were self-medicating.

Huffman, an American who has worked for years in Japan at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, first saw a parasite-ridden, constipated chimpanzee in Tanzania chew on the leaves of a noxious plant it would normally avoid. By the next day, the chimpanzee was completely recovered.”¹¹

Here is a fascinating interview with Michael Huffman from last year:




In 2001, Michael Huffman published an article titled, “Self-Medicative Behavior in the African Great Apes: An Evolutionary Perspective into the Origins of Human Traditional Medicine.” In the paper, he looks not just at the ways that some animals self-mediate but also at how in some cases, people learn about medicinal properties of plants by observing what animals do to treat themselves.
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Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/06/29/zoopharmacognosy.aspx

THANKS TO:https://stuartbramhall.wordpress.com/2023/06/29/do-animals-self-medicate/
Download Interview Transcript