Many people believe that humans are the only species to use medicine. But animals of all kinds—from ants to apes, from bees to bears, and from cats to caterpillars—use medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. In Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor Jaap de Roode describes apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms, sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel ticks, and bees that incorporate sticky resin into their hives to combat viruses. Learning about animal medication is not just fascinating, it is useful as well. As Dr. de Roode shows, we can use the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs for ourselves.
Since its publication in March 2025, Dr. de Roode has been able to present his book at numerous public events, for a wide diversity of audiences, including at the Free Library in Philadelphia, Cafe Caveat in New York City, The State Botanical Gardens of Georgia, the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe, and Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta. He has appeared in interviews in New Scientist, The Guardian, and Psychology Today, has talked to radio hosts in Atlanta (WABE), Ireland, and Dubai. He has talked about the book in many podcasts, including Gizmodo, Species Unite, and Talk Nerdy.
As another highlight, he presented the Dutch translation of his book at the Groote Museum at Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The goal of this museum, to demonstrate that humans and other animals have more in common than often assumed, aligns well with the Dr. de Roode’s book, which shows that humans and other animals have a lot in common when it comes to the use of medicine. In addition to Dutch, his book is currently translated into French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.