Wild chimpanzees give first aid to each other

A long-term study in Uganda offers glimpses at the origins of human medicine

An image of two chimps with one taking care of another's arm injury

Two chimpanzees groom each other. Chimps in Uganda’s Budongo Forest have also been observed treating each other’s injuries by licking, dabbing with leaves and other methods.

E. Freymann

For wounded chimpanzees, help sometimes comes in the form of first aid — care rendered not by humans but by other chimps.

New research reveals the nature and prevalence of these rarely