Self medicating animals

[Catherine]

It has been observed that animals will seek out certain plants to eat when they are sick. This has been observed in chimps and it has been observed in catterpillars and everything in between.  Now that scientists are starting to study the behavior, it is clear that they animals are actually medicating themselves to combat an illness. They are seeking whatever plant(s) is needed to overcome whatever health problem they have.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

We thought we invented medicine. Clearly  we did not.  We just invented expensive health care systems.
Medicine, in particular using plants to treat illness seems to be a basic trend for the whole animal kingdom. We could learn from it. It is the roots of medicine/health care as we know it and we should study our roots. Modern medicine has its strong points, but it would be good to understand how it all started.

When you think about this and what it means you have to admit that animals are smarter and understand their environments much better than we think they do. They also pass knowledge on from one generation to the next.  This is a very significant observation of animals. I am still thinking about what it all, means.