Wild Animals

A wild animal is a product of natural selection, in which those that have best adapted to their environment have survived to breed. They demonstrate successful strategies for survival that have been honed by natural selection. It is a general observation that wild animals free in their undisturbed habitat not exposed to extremes of environmental changes are in good health, free from contagious diseases. They live within their ecosystem to which their physiology and behaviour are well adopted. This has been of considerable interest to modern human and animal health research programmes, which lay stress on disease rather than on ways and means of health maintenance.

A brief look at some interesting results of observations and research related to wild animals:

• They are able to carry pathogens without themselves being susceptible to disease, i.e., they are often immune to vector-borne diseases and show few clinical signs of illness from parasite infections.
• Disease out break in wild populations is often the result of human intervention such as shrinkage of their natural habitats due to urbanization, and/or pollution, with agrochemicals, industrial wastes, introduction of newer pathogens, global warming, depletion of ozone layer, and so on. Occurrence of disease in wild animal populations has become an indicator of some form of pollution in their ecology.
• Animals appear to select a nutritionally balanced diet and change the diet to suit changes either in their natural surroundings or in their specific physiological requirements. For example, herbivores, like camels, change the shrubs they eat during drought. Likewise birds eat differently in preparation for migration to alter their metabolism to enable fat deposition—energy reserves for food less periods during long flight.
• In the wild, animals seek the needed minerals such as phosphorous, calcium and sodium by making unusual changes to their diet. They seem to have an awareness of the right balance of nutrients they need to get from their diet. Nutrition apart, they clearly eat food that both prevents and cures diseases.
• Animals are surrounded by powerful pharmacological substances found in plants (primary and secondary metabolites), soil and other organisms. They are found to actively utilize them for health maintenance. Even man-eating carnivores consume plants for their powerful medicinal effects.
• Wild animals thus use plants, rocks, mineral-rich waters, sunlight, toxic insects, charcoal and so on for medicinal purposes.
• Animals in the wild, highly adapted to their ecological food reserves, are rarely poisoned in the undisturbed state. Used to a range of plants in their habitat, herbivores are better adapted for dealing with plant poisons than omnivores, which are better than carnivores in this regard. They are observed to consume emetics to induce vomiting reflex. For instance, cats eat grass to vomit.
• They seem to know the right ratio or combination of diets that are needed to counter toxicity of the compounds contained in them. They consume plant parts for nutritional or medicinal value, discarding poisonous plant parts of the same plant.
• Animals rely on natural degradation to overcome changes in plant toxicity over time. For example, rabbit like pikas of North America store plants rich in toxic phenols, while eating those in lower phenol content. Over time due to breakdown of phenol content, the stored plants become less astringent and more palatable and then they are consumed in the long winter months.
• Animals are in mutually beneficial feeding programmes with plants, microbes and other animals. For instance, certain species of ants co-habit with a fungus that breaks down toxic plant compounds, both thus benefiting in the process.
• A wide variety of animals are known to resort to soil or earth eating (Geophagy) to counter gastrointestinal troubles. They appear to select the right soils often going long distances in search of them.
• Animals have a fascinating range of strategies to handle scores of microbes in their surroundings, such as hygiene, behavioral manipulation of body temperature, feed avoidance, consuming anti microbial plant diet, preparing their own anti microbials from plant chemicals.
• Animals in the wild deal with ectoparasites such as fleas, mites, ticks and lice by strategies such as
  1. swatting
  2. grooming-self and one another
  3. using specifically selected plants/insects/animal parts (having aromatic, astringent, analgesic substances) to rub into their skin, lay in their lair or chew and apply such material for ease of release of active principles
  4. exposing to sunlight
  5. rolling in dust, salt, urine
  6. accumulating toxic secondary compounds making their flesh pungent and unpalatable
• Wild animals manage other endoparasites by avoiding parasite hot spots such as feces, consuming clay-rich earth or by specifically feeding on plants with anthelmintic, anti-amoebic, purgative and bitter plants. Even carnivores such as wolves consume constant amounts of certain medicinal plants throughout the year in addition to their regular carnivorous diet.
• Animals deal with wounds, pain and broken bones by appropriate stretching and other physical postures, rubbing of bactericidal plant parts, licking (saliva is antibacterial), self treating using medicinal plant juices, honey and even are known to resort to making their own plaster casts from twigs, leaves and sticks.
• They synchronize their reproduction with food availability and consume fertility modulating plants, labor-inducing plants and even eat plants to tackle pregnancy-related discomforts.
• Animals cope with psychological ills much like humans by isolating themselves.