Chapter 4 - 10

10 Biology

Listen to a discussion in a biology class. Fill in the diagram with the information that you hear.

W: Before we begin, I want to remind you all that your papers on animal intelligence are due next week, and that each group will be responsible for a ten-minute presentation on their particular topic.

With that in mind, you may want to pay extra close attention to today’s lecture, which should be pretty interesting.

It’s about medicine, and in particular, I’m going to talk about animals that, well, animals that take and use medicine.

M: What do you mean? They know that certain things can help them recover from illnesses?

W: I thought my little introduction might surprise or, well, even confuse some of you.

And to answer your question, Tom, no, not exactly, but you have the right idea. You see, animals seem to know that certain plants can help them with sickness.

M: I really don’t see how an animal could be aware of the medicinal properties of a plant.

I mean, it’s more likely that they just eat this stuff because they eat it before, and maybe it happened to help with a common problem.

Or maybe the animals eat the plant because it’s part of their diet anyway.

And they happen to gain some other benefit just because they eat it.

W: Well, you could think of it that way if you wanted to, I suppose, but if you did, you’d be wrong! Actually, animals really do seem to know that certain plants help them medically.

M: Really? Hmm. Like what, for example?

W: Like the fact that certain kinds of monkeys, when they find aspilia plants – they actually purposely go out each day and locate these plants − they rub the leaves in their mouths.

They are very bitter, and the monkeys don’t even seem to really like the taste.

It’s really as if they know the plants are beneficial for them.

M: How are they beneficial? I mean, are they just nutritious, or…?

W: No, they aren’t just nutritious. These plants are really good at killing parasites that inhabit the intestines of wild animals.

The acidity kills them. There are other animals that do these kinds of things, too.

Usually, the “medicines” that they take are to treat some sort of fungus or parasitic problem.

Let’s see… oh, yes… bears. Bears chew certain leaves too, in order to get rid of internal parasites, but they also use the medicinal properties of plants to treat external problems, as well.

Um, like chewing the Osha root and then spitting some of the juices into their fur. By doing this, they can get rid of parasites that live on them.

It’s kind of like a bear bath.

M: I didn’t know that animals were that smart. I always just kind of figured that they only did things because that was what was instinctual.

W: And that may be some of it. But these kinds of things happen far too often to simply dismiss them as mere coincidence.

Here’s another example.

This one is really cool. Do you all know what cyanide is?

M: It’s a poison, right? A really deadly one. You’re not going to tell me that some animals eat cyanide.

W: Oh, but I am! They do. It’s really quite an amazing phenomenon.

In fact, I’ve saved the best for last. You’re not going to believe this one, OK?

Anyway, a lemur − that small, monkey-looking animal with a really long tail – some lemurs eat a certain kind of bamboo that has cyanide in it.

In fact, every day they eat about twelve times the lethal dose for animals of similar size.

Now, they just do this for food. So, how do they counteract the poison then?

Well, the lemurs somehow found out that, by eating the soil, yep dirt, they can keep the poison from killing them.

The ions in the soil neutralize the poison, allowing the lemurs to eat all the bamboo they want.

Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

So, in conclusion, I think there is some pretty strong evidence here that animals are smart enough to learn how to protect themselves, even if that means using medicine.

I suppose you could argue against me, but I’m pretty sure you’d be wrong.

1) Listen again to part of the discussion. Then answer the question.

In particular, I’m going to talk about animals that, well, animals that take and use medicine.

What do you mean? They know that certain things can help them recover from illnesses?

I thought my little introduction might surprise or, well, even confuse some of you.

And to answer your question, Tom, no, not exactly, but you have the right idea.

why does the professor say this: i thought my little introduction might surprise or well even confuse some of you

2) Listen again to part of the discussion. Then answer the question.

You see, animals seem to know that certain plants can help them with sickness.

M: I really don’t see how an animal could be aware of the medicinal properties of a plant.

I mean, it’s more likely that they just eat this stuff because they eat it before, and maybe it happened to help with a common problem.

Or maybe the animals eat the plant because it’s part of their diet anyway.

And they happen to gain some other benefit just because they eat it.

What can be inferred about the student?

3) What is the professor’s opinion of the lemur example she gives?