The secret of the animal's

Hugo chimpanzee picked up the sharp and rough leaves of Aspilia tree. He carefully folded the leaves into his mouth and tried to swallow with a miserable face like he was drinking bitter medicine. Indeed, this is Hugo's intestinal parasitic bleach.

In the wild there are many factors that affect the survival of animals such as diseases, injuries . How do they cope with those risks? Scientists have discovered the disease 'self-treatment' instinct by the leaves, soil, and rocks of wild animals.

Scientists at Gombe National Park (Tazania) after a while watching the chimpanzee here discovered: The chimp named Hugo is very good at finding Aspilia leaves even though this is not a food. Its preferred. This plant has thorns, sharp and rough leaves. Hugo picks Aspilia leaves but doesn't eat them in the usual way. He carefully folded the leaves into his mouth and tried to swallow with a miserable grimace like the way we drank a very bitter medicine to cure.

The scientists observed that chimpanzees then emit Aspilia leaves intact, on many parasites (infectious in the gut of this chimp). The set of evidence shows that the behavior of using leaves of Aspilia to remove chimp parasites is completely calculated; They eat this leaf not for energy.

The records of self-treatment ability in the natural world have existed since ancient times. Many documents of Chinese times, ancient Rome describe animals such as cats and dogs choosing to eat some plants when they are sick. The chimpanzee in this area uses nearly 20 different types of leaves (also in rough form) in the same way to deal with a variety of diseases.

Scientist Cindy Engel in the book " Wild health " has given a lot of surprising illustrations of the ability to deal with trauma, infectious diseases, parasites . of wild animals. Accordingly, they used a variety of ways to protect themselves, such as using leaves, soil, rocks and insects. If compared with domestic pets like sheep (once a year of single worm removal), wild animals are less parasitic, and have stronger resistance.

He said that if people do not take medicine when healthy, animals will only treat themselves when they are sick. The baboon in Ethiopia is an example. They are divided into two habitats above and below the waterfall. Species living under waterfalls often have to use Balanite leaves to remove parasites (because they are infected by snail species), while the upper living species never eat this leaf.

Not only plants are used by animals as medicine. Elgon elephants in the volcano (West Kenia) use a rock to withstand disease. The road to this area is very dangerous, can be killed at any time, but it cannot prevent the generation of elephants here to heal. They use porous stone to poke the stone there, use grinding teeth and swallow them. This soft stone has a sodium content 100 times higher than that of regular plants, and is rich in potassium and calcium. Sodium is an important element in metabolism, especially anti-toxin. But why elephants know how to use them to heal themselves, it's still a secret.

Another finding is quite interesting in elephants, which is how they resist stress. Elephants are a fairly intelligent animal. They can be stressed out when there are instabilities in their living areas such as being hunted, narrow habitats, or dead partners. Scientists have discovered that elephants use some of the fermented ripe fruits, then fall into a " drunk " state during periods of stress. They also calculated, with the huge weight of an elephant, if ' regulation ' of alcohol, it took 2 liters to make them ivory.

Lemurs in Madagascar have the ability to ' take medicine ' during pregnancy. One week before giving birth, they ate the leaves of Fihamy and Kily, with high tannin content. According to scientists, this substance enhances its immunity and avoids miscarriage.

Some other animals in Ruwarda use clay, extruded soil or some kind of wood item to deal with colic. To deal with insects such as fleas, lice . or parasites in the blood, rubbing monkeys on a reed contains toxins that help kill insects that cling to its fur.

In fact, people have learned a lot from animal self-healing instincts. For example, many local healers in Tanzania have used Aspila leaves to cure stomachache, antibacterial, eradicate parasitic animals for people in the region.

Scientists believe that up to 80% of drugs originate from nature. Therefore, continuing to study the self-healing ability of wild animals may bring more and more valuable drugs to people.