Ben Madilynn
His hypothesis was met with both excitement and disbelief. Indeed, just 22 hours later, Chausiku was back to her healthy, energetic self. Later research suggested Chausiku might have had a nodular worm infection in her gut. By analyzing the improvement in her feces, urine, and behavior, Huffman made the case for this being the scientifically documented example of self-medication in animals.
Huffman, now a professor at the Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University, admits that figuring out whether an animal is medicating is somewhat like an educated guess. “We can only describe what we see and then measure the outcomes of those actions,” he says. “But since we cannot talk to animals, we do not know what they are thinking when they self-medicate.”
Nevertheless, he believes there are both innate physiological factors, like cravings for certain tastes, and socially learned ones, like noticing a decrease in pain after a certain action, at play in these behaviors. He and a growing body of scientists posit that medication is not something reserved just for humans or even closely linked species, like primates. Examples of animals using medication are more widespread and varied than ever previously thought.
Researchers break down five examples of species across the animal kingdom figuring out ways to fight disease and prevent infection.
These caterpillars change their diet to treat their parasitic infections
When, in grasslands of southeastern Arizona, south of Tucson, in August 1993, biologist Michael Singer first observed woolly bear caterpillars—fluffy, black caterpillars that turn into tiger moths—he noticed they were grazing on a variety of plants rather than a narrow selection. “This was very un-caterpillar-like behavior,” says Singer, now a researcher at Wesleyan University.
