Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Doctors by Nature : How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves - Jaap de Roode

Doctors by Nature

How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves

By: Jaap de Roode

Hardcover | 1 June 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $44.99

$41.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $10.44 with

 or 

Ships in 3 to 5 business days

The astonishing story of how animals use medicine and what it can teach us about healing ourselves

Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature's pharmacy to heal themselves. Doctors by Nature reveals what researchers are now learning about the medical wonders of the animal world. In this visionary book, Jaap de Roode argues that we have underestimated the healing potential of nature for too long and shows how the study of self-medicating animals could impact the practice of human medicine.

Drawing on illuminating interviews with leading scientists from around the globe as well as his own pioneering research on monarch butterflies, de Roode demonstrates how animals of all kinds from ants to apes, from bees to bears, and from cats to caterpillars use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. We meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms, sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites, and bees that incorporate sticky resin into their hives to combat pathogens. De Roode asks whether these astonishing behaviours are learned or innate and explains why, now more than ever, we need to apply the lessons from medicating animals it can pave the way for healthier livestock, more sustainable habitats for wild pollinators, and a host of other benefits.

Doctors by Nature takes readers into a realm often thought to be the exclusive domain of humans, exploring how scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

More in Applied Ecology

The Life Trilogy Boxset - David Attenborough

RRP $130.00

$90.75

30%
OFF
The River : A Journey through the Murray-Darling Basin - Chris Hammer
A Sand County Almanac : And Sketches Here and There - Aldo Leopold
Human Nature : Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet - Kate Marvel
Platypus Matters : The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals - Jack Ashby
The Democracy of Species : Green Ideas - Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Underworld : Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean - Susan Casey
Ecology of Aquatic Plants - Paul Cook
The Great Dune Trilogy : Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune - Frank Herbert
Beyond Green : The Social Life of Australian Nature - Lesley Head
Sensational Australian Animals - Stephanie Owen Reeder

RRP $29.99

$26.75

11%
OFF
Australian Deserts : Ecology and Landscapes - Steve Morton

RRP $59.99

$47.75

20%
OFF