Lemurs May Be Making Medicine Out of Millipedes

Red-fronted lemurs join the growing list of animals that appear to use plants and other animals to treat their afflictions.

Generally speaking, it’s never a good idea to put a millipede in your mouth. Nor would it be advisable to whip one into a frenzy and then rub it all over your genitals.

After all, millipedes are known to produce an array of toxic secretions that keep predators at bay. Some species can even cause chemical burns.

However, in November of 2016, animal behaviorist Louise Peckre watched as a female red-fronted lemur in Madagascar’s Kirindy Forest picked up a giant millipede. The creature began alternating between chewing on the noxious critter and massaging it into the fur around her tail and sex organs. Finally, she gobbled the arthropod down.

As Peckre watched, the lemur then found two more millipedes and went through

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