Chimpanzees use leaves to wipe bums and clean up after sex, study finds

Research looking at hygiene and healthcare habits of the primates finds implications for understanding origin of human healthcare

Humans are not unique in having a host of hygiene and healthcare habits, researchers have found: chimpanzees also wipe their bottoms, tend each other’s wounds and even clean up after sex, according to a new study.

The research from the University of Oxford is not the first to show that great apes take care of themselves. Scientists have previously found chimpanzees use insects to treat their own wounds and those of others, while orangutans have been observed treating wounds with the sap and chewed leaves of plants with known medicinal properties.

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