How do Animals Self-Medicate in the Wild? With Dr. Jaap de Roode

In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks talks with Dr. Jaap de Roode, an evolutionary biologist and author of Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves, about one of the most fascinating corners of biology: the ways animals use plants, minerals, insects, and even toxins as medicine.

They talk about:

What sparked his interest in animals treating their own illnesses
Why medicine isn’t only a human invention
How scientists tell the difference between random behavior and true self-medication
His favorite examples of animal doctors in the wild
Whether animals know they’re taking medicine or if it’s instinct or trial-and-error
The weirdest substances animals use to heal themselves
What traditional healers who observed animals for years and years could teach us ,and what we ourselves could learn from observing this type of animal behavior.
Whether animal self-medication could lead to new drugs or therapies
The risks of over-romanticizing “nature knows best”
The scientific challenges in proving an animal is self-medicating
How seeing animals as medicine-users might change how we respect their lives and value their habitats
And the big question: Who is the best doctor in the animal kingdom?

If you love animals, nature, weird science, evolutionary biology, or the idea that your pet might actually be a doctor or furry-little pharmacist, you’ll love this episode.

Dr. Jaap de Roode runs a research lab at Emory University focused on how hosts and parasites co-evolve, from monarch butterflies to honey bees. He also leads science outreach, directs the Infectious Diseases Across Scales training program, and hosts the Virulent Vortex podcast. You can learn more about him and his research here.

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