The secret live of apes: After orangutan's medical marvel how other primates have hidden skills and abilities including making and using tools and even babysitting

People have marvelled at an orangutan's intelligence, after it was pictured healing a facial wound by chewing on a medicinal plant, as experts believe that this skill has likely been honed through generations of 'trial and error'.

The Sumatran orangutan, named Rakus, was seen chewing up leaves of a medicinal plant, creating a pulp and administering the substance on an injury near his eye - which then healed within a week. 

In what is believed to be the first-of-its-kind siting, scientists were left baffled at how the animal knew the plant had medicinal powers. 

But Richard Byrne, a professor of the evolution of cognitive and social behaviour at University of St Andrews told MailOnline that much like when humans once used 'spider webs and mould to treat wounds' long before penicillin, this ape behaviour is likely just 'a lucky chance' after generations of 'trial and error'. 

Researchers saw a male orangutan named Rakus with a face wound on June 22, 2022. Two days later, he chewed up leaves and spread the paste onto the wound

About two months later, on August 25, 2022, Rakus showed almost no sign of having been injured

He said: '[They have learnt this by] lucky chance. [Found] a favourable result that is noticeable, and then remembered to use again. 

'Social learning, including imitation, then allows the trick to be passed on to future generations, without any understanding of the medical mechanism or active instruction by skilled practitioners.'

'That’s generally thought to be how the more complex tool-using skills are passed on, in chimpanzees and orangutans, the two species that regularly use tools in the wild.'

Susannah Thorpe a professor of Zoology at the University of Birmingham added that despite not knowing how it learnt this pheonmenon trick, 'it just shows how intelligent these animals are.' 

She said that although this may be the first time we are witnessing them use medicinal plants, we know they are already highly skilled in mechanics, from building nests up high in the forest canopy; in locomotion, to enable them to swing from tree to tree, and even in knowledge of food. 

Speaking to MailOnine she said: 'Adult females, for example, have diets that have about 170 or more food items, and accessing up to 50% of those relies on cognitively commanding food processing skills, like extractive foraging, which is knowing which components where food is which component of each type of food to eat.'

Well this is not the first time scientists have witnessed primates exhibit fascinating cognitive behaviours. 

Capuchin monkeys in Brazil have been spotted using instruments to help them open cashew nuts. 

The primates used rocks, even changing the size of tools they used over time, switching from smaller rocks to larger ones and back again, to access the nut. 

Capuchin monkeys have been using stone tools to crack open cashew nuts for around 3,000 years — or 450 generations — reveals a dig in Brazil

Researchers then studied the stone tools that they unearthed and used carbon-dating of fragments of charcoals found near each tool to determine their respective ages.

They found that capuchin monkeys have been cracking open nuts with rocks at this site for around 3,000 years — which is about 450 generations.

More than just the physical side of traits, there has also been research done into the phychological side of monkeys. 

Documentary maker, Nick Easton, studied golden-headed lion tamarins in Brazil, and showed how the animals are not only always on the move to avoid predators and to find food, but the male fathers are subject to 'babysitting' their children in a shockingly human trait. 

The father, while being the head of the family, must also do his fair share of child-care repsonsbilities. 

For a period of time while the female tamarin recovers from her pregnancy and prepares for the next one, it is up to the dads to manage the baby alone. 

He even said: 'We saw how his [the male tamarin] perfectly able youngest daughter exploited his softer side, and demanded a carry whenever she could.'

For a period of time while the female tamarin recovers from her pregnancy and prepares for the next one, it is up to the dads to manage the baby alone. (Stock image)

The researchers looked at three groups of vervet monkeys the Ankhase (AK), Baie Dankie (BD) and Noha (NH) whose overlapping territories are shown here and tracked how males (shown by black dots) moved between them

A nine-year study of Vervet monkeys found that social traditions are transmitted through different communities of animals.

Scientists from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and Paul Sabatier University in France say that monkeys face a process akin to peer pressure in humans.

This causes males who join more sociable communities to quickly adapt to match the social styles of their new group.

Charlotte Canteloup, study co-author, told MailOnline: 'All vervet monkeys are social animals and they use common social behaviors as grooming to establish and maintain social bonds.

'Our hypothesis is that males socially conform to the social norm of their new group by mimicking the behavior of their new conspecifics. In other words, they adopt the social fashion of their new group.'

The researchers studied almost 250 vervet monkeys in South Africa over nine years, analysing data from more than 84,000 social interactions.

The monkeys lived in three different communities called the Ankhase (AK), Baie Dankie (BD) and Noha (NH), with big differences in how sociable the monkeys were in each.

Males Vervet monkeys (above) who joined groups where social styles were more demanding became more sociable after joining the group and engaged in more reciprocal grooming

Pictured left: This is the heart-touching moment when a grief-stricken monkey gave his human pal a last kiss at his funeral. Before his death, Peetambaram Rajan, 56, fed the wild grey langur every day with fruit and biscuits at his forest-side home in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

This monkey got stuck right in washing clothes after they were left by the owner while they were  being soaked

This mimicking of behaviour is also seen more directly when humans and monkeys form bonds or come into close contact. 

One grief-stricken wild monkey gave his human friend a final kiss and tried to revive him at his funeral.

Before his death, Peetambaram Rajan, 56, fed the wild grey langur every day with fruit and biscuits at his forest-side home in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.

Video footage recorded by a mourner at the head of the coffin shows the monkey leaning in to try to hug his human benefactor.

The langur then leans over the coffin and plants a kiss on Rajan's face and grabs his hands, as if trying to lead him away or wake him up.

Eventually mourners gently carry the distressed monkey away from the coffin.

In 2020 a wild monkey was also seen hand-washing clothes outside a house in Indonesia, after copying a woman. 

In the clip, Ayu Sarasyani had left a bowl full of dirty clothes soaking in water and detergent outside her home in South Kalimantan province.

But when she returned to finish off the chore, she was stunned to find a wild-long tailed monkey had stepped in to give her a helping hand.

Imitating how she scrubs dirt off the clothes outside her house, the primate begins by dipping the clothes in the water while perched on the edge of the large green bowl.

The monkey then lifts them out of the soapy water before scrubbing them, repeating the action several times.

At one point the clothes are spread out onto the concrete floor as the monkey gets knee deep into cleaning them with rigour.