ANIMAL DOCTORS

2013

Production:  K Production/Arte France

Synopsis:

There are only twenty-five years that the first evidence of self-medication behavior in an animal were made, first in chimpanzees. Based on pioneering research conducted by the American scientist Michael Huffman, which serves as our guide throughout the film, a new science was founded: the zoopharmacognosie, or the study of animal medicines. At the crossroads of ethology, medicine and anthropology, the study of the behavior of « animal-doctors » makes us look at the genesis of intelligence and culture. Where does humanity, where does the animal? It provides valuable evidence on the possible nature of self-medication in early hominids, and on the development of therapeutic behavior to our modern medicine.