Wild Orangutan Observed Using Medicinal Plant To Treat Wound

WASHINGTON (AP) — An orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant— the latest example of how some animals attempt to soothe their own ills with remedies found in the wild, scientists reported Thursday.

Scientists observed Rakus pluck and chew up leaves of a medicinal plant used by people throughout Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation. The adult male orangutan then used his fingers to apply the plant juices to an injury on the right cheek. Afterward, he pressed the chewed plant to cover the open wound like a makeshift bandage, according to a new study in Scientific Reports.

Previous research has documented several species of great apes foraging for medicines in forests to heal themselves, but scientists hadn’t yet seen an animal treat itself in this way.

“This is the first time that we have observed a wild animal applying a quite potent medicinal plant directly to a wound,” said co-author Isabelle Laumer, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany.

The orangutan’s intriguing behavior was recorded in 2022 by Ulil Azhari, a co-author and field researcher at the Suaq Project in Medan, Indonesia. Photographs show the animal’s wound closed within a month without any problems.

Scientists have been observing orangutans in Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park since 1994, but they hadn’t previously seen this behavior.

“It’s a single observation,” said Emory University biologist Jacobus de Roode, who was not involved in the study. “But often we learn about new behaviors by starting with a single observation.”

“Very likely it’s self-medication,” said de Roode, adding that the orangutan applied the plant only to the wound and no other body part.

It’s possible Rakus learned the technique from other orangutans living outside the park and away from scientists’ daily scrutiny, said co-author Caroline Schuppli at Max Planck.

Rakus was born and lived as a juvenile outside the study area. Researchers believe the orangutan got hurt in a fight with another animal. It’s not known whether Rakus earlier treated other injuries.

Scientists have previously recorded other primates using plants to treat themselves.

Bornean orangutans rubbed themselves with juices from a medicinal plant, possibly to reduce body pains or chase away parasites.

Chimpanzees in multiple locations have been observed chewing on the shoots of bitter-tasting plants to soothe their stomachs. Gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos swallow certain rough leaves whole to get rid of stomach parasites.

“If this behavior exists in some of our closest living relatives, what could that tell us about how medicine first evolved?” said Tara Stoinski, president and chief scientific officer of the nonprofit Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, who had no role in the study.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Seeing Is Believing With These Weird Mother's Day Gifts

Your mom is there for you always, and you really only need to return the favor one day out of the year.

But there is a lot of pressure to get mom a gift that she will like — and, more importantly, that shows you get her as a person, not just as a parental figure.

On top of that is the pesky little fact that, like most people, your mom is probably a closet weirdo.

Luckily for you and your mom, HuffPost Weird News has once again combed the world looking for gifts that will surely appeal to her, whether it’s headphones with kitty ears, a portable urinal or bath products inspired by the movie, “Shrek.”

You don’t have to thank us.

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Avoid These Rude Behaviors When Smoking Weed On 4/20

A lot of stoners are high on celebrating 420 this weekend, but bad manners could get in the way of a good time.

So before you take that first toke Saturday, members of the cannabis community have some etiquette tips to keep your pot party from getting out of joint.

Jeremy Zachary, the CEO of Zen Cannabis, suggests taking your surroundings into consideration when consuming the wacky weed.

“If you’re in a public place, please choose other consumption methods instead of smoking,” he told HuffPost. “Smoking is equivalent to lighting up a cigar in a small space — it’s overwhelming. Edibles are so convenient and portable, there’s no reason not to go that route.”

Consent is also key, according to Michael Bologna, the CEO of Dip Devices, a cannabis hardware manufacturer. He cautions his fellow cannabis enthusiasts not to give edibles to someone “without their express knowledge and approval.”

Phoebe DePree, the founder and CEO of Goddess Growers, stresses the need to be aware of the disproportionate impact of cannabis prohibition on marginalized communities.

“Cannabis is now legal in many states, but only recently entire generations of people were imprisoned,” DePree said, adding that “some still are.”

“It makes me sick when I think about it. Acknowledging this uncomfortable truth and advocating for social justice and equity fall very high on my list.”

Wendy Bronfein of Baltimore-based Curio Wellness believes that using the proper terminology is just good manners.

“I’d like to see people refer to it as ‘cannabis’ rather than ‘marijuana,’ ‘weed’ or ‘pot,’” she said. “Cannabis is the scientific and formal term for the plant. A simple change contributes to the larger shifts we look to see as we remove stigmas and normalize cannabis use.”

Meanwhile, Rachel Sterling from Ounce of Hope, an aquaponic cannabis grower, thinks sharing is caring when you’re passing around a pipe.

“Look, if we’re all sharing a bowl, you need to corner it,” Sterling warned, suggesting that each person light only a small part of the bowl.

“You’re not going to get more stoned by blazing all the green on the bowl in one hit, Luke. Save some for the rest of us!”

Also, you shouldn’t force-feed your flower, joints or edibles to others, according to David Charles, the CEO of online THC dispensary Mood.

“Sometimes there’s peer pressure to consume more than someone may be comfortable with,” he told HuffPost. “This is similar to alcohol, where it can become a bit of a contest to see who holds their liquor better. I think this is silly ― nobody should pressure someone to take more cannabis (or anything else) than they want.”

When it comes to good ganja manners on 4/20, cleanliness is next to godliness for David Craig, the chief marketing officer for cannabis company Illicit Gardens.

“Clean your bowl after each use,” he said. “This isn’t because I’m a clean freak. It’s primarily because I’ve got some chronic and I want to enjoy its flavors fully. Smoking out of a clean piece of glass is the best way to get that. That means bong water too. I change it out after every bowl — ice, too.”

Peter Tang, who co-owns the vaping product company PlugPlay, has a variety of pot etiquette tips, including not blowing smoke in people’s faces, not hogging a joint, and never throwing a roach on the floor.

Most importantly, “don’t spit!” he said.

But the most universal tip may be the one suggested by Alex Allouche of C3 Industries, a multistate cannabis company.

“Keep passing that joint!” Allouche told HuffPost. “I am sure your story is great, but you don’t need to have the joint in hand to tell it.”

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New Orleans Restaurant Puts Cicada Salad On Menu

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As the nation prepares for trillions of red-eyed bugs known as periodical cicadas to emerge, it’s worth noting that they’re not just annoying, noisy pests — if prepared properly, they can also be tasty to eat.

Blocks away from such French Quarter fine-dining stalwarts as Antoine’s and Brennan’s, the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans has long served up an array of alternative, insect-based treats at its “Bug Appetit” cafe overlooking the Mississippi River. “Cinnamon Bug Crunch,” chili-fried waxworms, and crispy, cajun-spiced crickets are among the menu items.

Periodical cicadas stay buried for years, until they surface and take over a landscape. Depending on the variety, the emergence happens every 13 or 17 years. This year two groups are expected to emerge soon, averaging around 1 million per acre over hundreds of millions of acres across parts of 16 states in the Midwest and South.

They emerge when the ground warms to 64 degrees (17.8 degrees Celsius), which is happening earlier than it used to because of climate change, entomologists said. The bugs are brown at first but darken as they mature.

Recently, Zack Lemann, the Insectarium’s curator of animal collections, has been working up cicada dishes that may become part of the menu. He donned a chef’s smock this week to show a couple of them off, including a green salad with apple, almonds, blueberry vinaigrette — and roasted cicadas. Fried cicada nymphs were dressed on top with a warm mixture of creole mustard and soy sauce.

“I do dragonflies in a similar manner,” Lemann said as he used tweezers to plop nymphs into a container of flour before cooking them in hot oil.

Depending on the type and the way they are prepared, cooked cicadas taste similar to toasted seeds or nuts. The Insectarium isn’t the first to promote the idea of eating them. Over the years, they have appeared on a smattering of menus and in cookbooks, including titles like “Cicada-Licious” from the University of Maryland in 2004.

“Every culture has things that they love to eat and, maybe, things that are taboo or things that people just sort of, wrinkle their nose and frown their brow at,” Lemann said. “And there’s no reason to do that with insects when you look at the nutritional value, their quality on the plate, how they taste, the environmental benefits of harvesting insects instead of dealing with livestock.”

Lemann has been working to make sure the Bug Appetit cafe has legal clearance to serve wild-caught cicadas while he works on lining up sources for the bugs. He expects this spring’s unusual emergence of two huge broods of cicadas to heighten interest in insects in general, and in the Insectarium — even though the affected area doesn’t include southeast Louisiana.

“I can’t imagine, given the fact that periodical cicadas are national news, that we won’t have guests both local and from outside New Orleans, asking us about that,” said Lemann. “Which is another reason I hope to have enough to serve it at least a few times to people.”

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Wildlife Officials Trap Alligator At Florida Air Force Base

Things got “plane” crazy at Florida’s MacDill Air Force Base on Monday thanks to an errant alligator.

With mating season kicking off in the Sunshine State, one 10-foot gator apparently thought that the best place to look for love was between the tires of a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft, according to McClatchy News.

The Tampa-area Air Force base posted photos of the gator to social media.

Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived on the scene to deal with what the base jokingly called its “newest toothy Airman.”

Video shared online shows the gator thrashing around as it gets taken into custody.

The animal was later released into the Hillsborough River, the base said.

As McClatchy News noted, alligators have been a continuing concern at MacDill. The base’s most famous creature is Elvis, a 12-foot alligator who has appeared on its golf course.

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The Onion's New Owners Pay Tribute To Site's Satirical Past In A Totally Real Way

The Onion has a new owner and the buyer’s name reads like it’s straight from one of the site’s articles.

Chicago-based firm Global Tetrahedron — which shares a name with a mock corporation that served as a long-running gag on the satirical news site and was featured in its staffers’ 1999 book “Our Dumb Century”— has purchased The Onion.

G/O Media, which owned The Onion since 2019, sold the site after recently saying goodbye to other properties such as The A.V. Club and Deadspin.

Global Tetrahedron is composed of four “digital media veterans” who have “a profound love for The Onion and comedy-based content,” wrote G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller in a memo that was first reported on by The New York Times’ Katie Robertson.

The firm, according to a tongue-in-cheek section on its website, is “committed to control in all its forms” and describes itself as “pragmatic, focused, bloodthirsty, and fanatical.”

Spanfeller noted that the new owners agreed to keep The Onion’s staff “intact” and in Chicago, something that G/O Media insisted be part of its deal.

The firm is owned by ex-Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, according to the Times, while its CEO is Ben Collins, a former NBC News senior reporter.

Collins, in a post Thursday on X (formerly Twitter), wrote that the new owners are “bringing back” The Onion News Network and will “share the wealth” with staff.

“Basically, we’re going to let them do whatever they want. Get excited,” Collins wrote.

The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed.

NEWS: My friends and I now own and run The Onion. I’ll be the CEO.

We’re keeping the entire staff, bringing back The Onion News Network, and share the wealth with staff.

Basically, we’re going to let them do whatever they want. Get excited.https://t.co/CQtWzFHn4A

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 25, 2024

The Onion began as a weekly newspaper in 1988 before the launch of its website.

Lawson told the Times that the world needs laughter and satirical criticism “more than ever.”

“And that’s why we think this is the right time and the right way to help The Onion continue to grow, continue to flourish, and frankly I’m concerned if we hadn’t done this, I don’t know what would have happened,” he said.

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Japanese Town Battling Tourists By Installing Screen To Block Mount Fuji

FUJIKAWAGUCHIKO, Japan (AP) — The town of Fujikawaguchiko has had enough of tourists.

Known for a number of scenic photo spots that offer a near-perfect shot of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, the town on Tuesday began constructing a large black screen on a stretch of a sidewalk to block the view of the mountain. The reason: misbehaving foreign tourists.

“Kawaguchiko is a town built on tourism, and I welcome many visitors, and the town welcomes them too, but there are many things about their manners that are worrying,” said Michie Motomochi, owner of a cafe serving Japanese sweets “ohagi,” near the soon-to-be-blocked photo spot.

Motomochi mentioned littering, crossing the road with busy traffic, ignoring traffic lights, trespassing into private properties. She isn’t unhappy though — 80% of her customers are foreign visitors whose numbers have surged after a pandemic hiatus that kept Japan closed for about two years.

Her neighborhood suddenly became a popular spot about two years ago, apparently after a photo taken in a particular angle showing Mount Fuji in the background, as if sitting atop a local convenience store, became a social media sensation known as “Mt. Fuji Lawson,” town officials say.

The mostly foreign tourists have since crowded the small area, triggering a wave of concerns and complaints from residents about visitors blocking the narrow sidewalk, taking photos on the busy road or walking into neighbors’ properties, officials said.

In Europe, concerns over tourists overcrowding historic cities led Venice last week to launch a pilot program to charge day-trippers a 5-euro ($5.35) entry fee. Authorities hope it will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Fujikawaguchiko has tried other methods: signs urging visitors not to run into the road and to use the designated crosswalk in English, Chinese, Thai and Korean, and even hiring a security guard as crowd control. None worked.

The black mesh net, when completed in mid-May, will be 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) high and 20 meters (65.6 feet) long, and will almost completely block the view of Mount Fuji, officials said.

Dozens of tourists gathered Tuesday taking photos even though Mount Fuji was not in sight due to cloudy weather.

Anthony Hok, from France, thought the screen was an overreaction. “Too big solution for subject not as big, even if tourists are making trouble. Doesn’t look right to me,” he said. The 26-year-old suggested setting up road barriers for safety instead of blocking views for pictures.

But Helen Pull, a 34-year-old visitor from the U.K., was sympathetic to the local concern. While traveling in Japan in the past few weeks, she has seen tourism “really ramped up here in Japan from what we’ve seen.”

“I can see why people who live and work here might want to do something about that,” she said, noting many were taking pictures even when the mountain was not in the view. “That’s the power of the social media.”

Foreign visitors have flocked to Japan since the pandemic border restrictions were lifted, in part due to the weaker yen.

Last year, Japan had more than 25 million visitors, and the number this year is expected to surpass nearly 32 million, a record from 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. And the government wants more tourists.

While the booming tourism has helped the industry, it has triggered complaints from residents in popular tourist destinations, such as Kyoto and Kamakura. In Kyoto, a famous geisha district recently decided to close some private-property alleys.

Locals are uncertain about what to do.

Motomochi said she cannot imagine how the black screen can help control the flow of people on the narrow pedestrian walk and the road next to it.

Yoshihiko Ogawa, who runs a more than half-century-old rice shop in the Fujikawaguchiko area, said the overcrowding worsened in the past few months, with tourists gathering from around 4-5 a.m. and talking loudly. He sometimes struggles to get his car in and out of garage.

“We’ve never thought we’d face a situation like this,” Ogawa said, adding he is unsure what the solution might be. “I suppose we all just need to get use to it.”

___

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

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Porch Pirate Dresses Up As Trash Bag To Steal Package Worth $10

A homeowner in Sacramento, California, had some items stolen from his porch, but he got a big laugh in return.

Omar Gabriel Munoz checked his surveillance system on Friday and was shocked by what he saw: someone hiding inside a trash bag waddling up to his door step in order to steal a package.

“You see the bag coming to my door,” Munoz told Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV. “At first, I thought they were messing with me.”

Munoz said he got a notification that a package of two phone chargers, worth about $10, had been delivered.

When he got home, there was no package, so he checked the security footage and saw the video of the trashy porch pirate.

“At first I was kinda angry, but when I saw the video again I was laughing because people [these] days have a lot of creativity,” Munoz said, according to Bay Area Fox affiliate KTVU.

So far there are no suspects, but Munoz would love to meet the bagman and already knows what he’d say.

“That was a good one,” he said.

You can see a video of the encounter below.

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California Dog Missing Since July Is Found In Michigan

DETROIT (AP) — A dog missing in California since the summer turned up more than 2,000 miles away in suburban Detroit.

Police in Harper Woods responded to a call about a stray dog last week, picked up the terrier mix and contacted an animal welfare group.

The Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society said it quickly discovered that the dog, named Mishka, had an identity chip implanted in her with information about her owners.

Mehrad Houman and his family live in San Diego but were planning to travel to Minnesota when the call came in. He landed there and then drove 10 hours to Michigan for a reunion with Mishka, the adoption group said on a Facebook post with pictures and video.

“This is a tale that Hollywood would love to tell,” the group said.

Mishka had wandered away from Houman’s workplace, an auto garage, in July and never returned. Her collar had the family’s phone number.

“We think it was stolen and then it was sold and ended up in Michigan,” said Corinne Martin, director of the animal welfare group.

Houman’s wife, Elizabeth, said it’s “been an incredible journey.”

“I never gave up,” she said Thursday. “I put up over a thousand flyers. I had a flyer on my back windshield. I wore her leash whenever I would look for her. ... Now I just want to find out how she got to Michigan.”

Veterinarian Nancy Pillsbury examined 3-year-old Mishka, gave her a rabies shot and cleared her to travel home to California.

“She was clean, well-fed. Whoever had her took good care of her,” Pillsbury told The Associated Press. “How she got here — that’s a story only Mishka knows.”

___

Follow Ed White on X at https://twitter.com/edwritez

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Man Getting Vasectomy When Earthquake Hit Thought Doctor Was Making A 'Joke'

Shaken, but not spermed.

Justin Allen, a 33-year-old father of two from Horsham, Pennsylvania, got a whole lot of attention on social media Friday when he posted about his experience during an earthquake that hit the East Coast around 10:23 a.m., with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8.

And let’s just say it struck while he was in the middle of a very delicate procedure.

“A FUCKING EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED IN THE MIDDLE OF MY VASECTOMY,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

A FUCKING EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED IN THE MIDDLE OF MY VASECTOMY

— Justin Allen (@Jallen_Town) April 5, 2024

Allen explained to HuffPost on Friday that he had a 10 a.m. appointment scheduled at a urology surgery center in Huntingdon Valley, and that it “started out totally normal.”

“I was thankful to have a surgeon that walked me through every single step of the procedure,” Allen wrote. “But about 10 minutes into the 20 minute surgery, the whole room started shaking.”

Allen reacted to the rare event like other East Coasters — by reaching for a logical reason for the surreal situation.

“At first I was wondering if we were close to a train station or if there was something else that could be causing the room to shake like that,” he said. “Either way, I didn’t initially think it was an earthquake because I’d never really felt one before.”

But then his surgeon addressed the elephant in the room.

“When the doctor said ‘is that an earthquake?’ I still thought it was a joke and that he was just trying to lighten the mood,” Allen said. “After a minute or two, when things settled, he resumed the procedure and we all laughed about how we would never forget where we were when this happened.”

Allen said the experience was so wild that he couldn’t help but share it with others, and decided to tweet about it the “moment I got to my phone after the procedure had wrapped up.”

“I definitely thought it would just be something funny for my friends to laugh at,” Allen said. “And it blew up.”

His wife, Bridget Allen, even snapped a few photos of her husband outside of the facility, and couldn’t help but post them on X as well.

https://t.co/HnIEGR3qad pic.twitter.com/g63waLdCRd

— Bridget Allen (@bridgetallen915) April 5, 2024

Justin Allen said that the experience of going viral has been “overwhelming,” and that he’s had to mute the responses to his post. But he admitted that he’s seen lots of “hilarious” reactions.

mother nature with the best DEEZ NUTS joke in human history

— Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) April 5, 2024

Although the situation was definitely an odd one, he said he’s happy that his little Allen is recovering just fine and dandy.

“It was an interesting experience for everyone,” he told HuffPost. “I’m glad everything turned out alright and we all could laugh about it.”

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353 Ballerinas Dance On Tiptoes And Set New World Record

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of young dancers in white tutus and tightly coiffed hair gathered in New York’s Plaza Hotel on Wednesday to break the world record for dancing on pointe in one place.

The spectacle was organized by Youth America Grand Prix, a ballet scholarship program that is celebrating its 25th anniversary with three nights of performances at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The dancers included students aged 9 to 19 who are competing for scholarships as well as professional dancers who are alums of the program.

Tchaikovsky music played as the ballerinas stood on tiptoes and switched their weight rapidly from one foot to the other — a step called bourrée — for a full minute.

Tina Shi, an adjudicator for Guinness World Records, announced the results: “353, that is a new Guinness world record! Congratulations!”

The New York-based Youth America Grand Prix has operated the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition since 1999.

The previous record for ballerinas on pointe en masse was 306.

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