How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves

Meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms and sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites. Many animals use medicine to treat themselves — something that for a long time has been thought to be the exclusive domain of humans. Now scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs. Presented at the Free Library of Philadelphia Listen to Big Ideas: Insects — nature's ultimate superheroes Speaker Jaap de Roode Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University Author of Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves