Doctors by Nature: An exclusive excerpt from a book about how animals heal themselves

Here's the good news: even by replacing just 10 percent of our lawns with diverse plant gardens, we can boost biodiversity, maintain insects, and provide medicinal plants for our pets. We may even use these gardens to grow medicinal plants for human use, which would help curb the overharvesting of some medicinal plants in the wild, and recreate the natural pharmacies that traditional healers rely on.
Because of all these benefits, local and national governments are increasingly developing initiatives for individual households to create native habitats. In Germany, the Thousands of Gardens—Thousands of Species project aims to create oases of biodiversity, including gardens, balconies, and open spaces with a goal to curb insect declines.
The project is funded in part by Germany's federal government and partners with seed companies, nurseries, and garden centers to provide seed packages to participants. In Minnesota, the Lawns to Legumes program provides grants to homeowners to develop natural gardens. In my home country of the Netherlands, an organization called The Pollinators provides free bags of seed mixes to create insect gardens.
In (the American state of) Georgia, my new adopted home, I am on the board of directors of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, a nonprofit organization that aims to expand pollinator habitats. Initiated by former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the trail was established in 2013 and grew to almost two thousand gardens in the first ten years of its existence.
As an organization, we provide guidance on what plants to use and how to maintain the gardens. We encourage people to plant native milkweeds to support monarch butterflies. My own lab provides milkweeds and other plants for participants in the metro-Atlanta area. It may seem like a small thing to create a garden, but if enough people do it, we can recreate a lot of much-needed nature.
One common theme in this book has been that animals need choices. They do not just need shelter and food. They need medicine. And to get that, they need access to a diversity of plants and other natural products. Preserving nature is the best way to maintain their choices, and so is providing diverse gardens to pets, zoo animals, and our neighborhood insects.
So, as you are building your garden, I invite you to take a moment to witness the spectacles of the natural world that will unfold there. Live in the moment and witness that ant, bee, or butterfly that visits your garden. Watch your cat or dog frolic in the flowers. And as you are watching, ask yourself: What is the animal doing? Is it eating? Is it drinking? Is it finding shelter?
Or, maybe: Is it collecting medicine?
(Excerpted with permission from Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves by Jaap de Roode, published by Princeton University Press; 2025)

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

NDTV

9 hours ago

• NDTV

UK Navy Declines Air India's Hangar Space Offer To Park Grounded F-35B: Sources

New Delhi: The Royal Navy's crown jewel F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jet, which has been parked in the open in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram for six days, will not be moved inside a hangar, as requested by the British navy, sources said. The American-origin F-35B - the most expensive fighter jet in terms of programme cost - is packed with advanced technologies that Britain may not want others to take a closer look at, sources said, adding this could be one of the reasons why the Royal Navy declined Air India's offer to allocate hangar space to park the aircraft, away from the elements. It is highly likely that concerns over "protected technologies" may have delayed any decision on the Royal Navy's part to take the F-35B inside a hangar. While they have so far declined the offer, they may consider moving it inside the hangar for a final inspection and repair, sources said. The British F-35B made an unscheduled landing in Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on June 14. The jet, one of the most advanced of its kind in the world, has become an unusual and high-profile presence at the airport, drawing attention from aviation enthusiasts and onlookers. The aircraft is part of the UK's HMS Prince of Wales carrier strike group, currently deployed in the Indo-Pacific region. The carrier group recently completed joint maritime exercises with the Indian Navy. Since the F-35B's arrival in Kerala, British aviation engineers have been working intensively to fix a technical snag in the aircraft's hydraulic systems. Despite their efforts, the issue remains unresolved, delaying the fighter jet's return to its mother ship. The aircraft remains parked at the airport under a strict security cordon. Initially, the F-35B pilot contacted Thiruvananthapuram airport and sought clearance for landing citing low fuel. The next day, the Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed that it was an emergency landing, and the IAF would be providing all necessary support. The pilot and Royal Navy technicians are at the airport, looking into the mechanical issues.

Time of India

16 hours ago

• Time of India

Trump administration responsible for starving kids in Kenya? US fund cuts results in massive shortage

In the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya, hope is running out as fast as food supplies. More than 300,000 refugees, who have fled conflict and persecution across Africa and the Middle East, now face starvation as US funding faces cuts. The food rations have been slashed in less than half, and for many, hunger is an ever-present reality, as reported by BBC. Until this year, the UN was giving around $4 million (£3 million) in cash directly to refugees in Kenya 's camps each month, intended to allow families to buy basic supplies. These payments, known locally as bamba chakula , were distributed electronically and could only be used to purchase food, giving families the ability to supplement their rations with fresh produce, protein, and other essentials. The drastic reduction in food rations is the result of sweeping cuts in U.S. foreign aid, announced by the Trump administration earlier this year. The United States was previously the largest donor to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Kenya, providing about 70% of its funding. With the withdrawal of American support in March, the WFP has been forced to reduce rations to just 30% of the minimum dietary requirements needed to maintain health. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo 'If we are left managing this prolonged situation, we essentially have a population that is slowly starving,' warns Felix Okech, the WFP's refugee operations chief in Kenya. Seventeen-year-old Fatima, an aspiring teacher from South Sudan, skips meals so her younger siblings can eat. 'We used to have dreams. Now, we just try to survive,' she says. Fatima's school attendance has dropped sharply as she spends more time searching for odd jobs to help her family make ends meet. Live Events The Kakuma camp, originally built for 10,000 people, now shelters a population larger than many cities, with residents from over 20 countries. The camp's infrastructure is buckling under the strain, and the loss of U.S. funding has compounded the crisis, threatening to undo years of progress in health, education, and nutrition. 'The humanitarian funding pause didn't just delay aid—it fractured the foundation of how humanitarian support functions,' a humanitarian worker recently told DEVEX, echoing the sentiment of many aid organizations. The impact is starkly visible at Amusait Hospital within the camp. Malnourished children fill the 30-bed ward, their eyes hollow and skin flaking with patches of angry red. There are babies like Hellen and James, the latter just nine-months old. Both suffer from acute malnutrition. James' mother, a refugee from northern Uganda, pleads for help: 'The food is insufficient; my children eat only once daily. If there's no food, what can I give them?' Martin Komol, a 59-year-old widower from Uganda, rues his fate in his crumbling mud-walled home and wonders how he will survive until the next food distribution while speaking to AP. 'When we can't find anyone to assist us, we become ill, but when we seek help at the hospital, they tell us it's just hunger and send us back home,' he says, his voice breaking with exhaustion. Komol now eats just once a day, sometimes only every other day, relying on the kindness of neighbors when his monthly allocation runs out. Aisha, a single mother from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has watched her three children grow weaker each week. Her youngest, a toddler named Amina, is now too weak to walk. 'Every day, I pray for more food. I don't know what else to do,' Aisha says, cradling her child in the hospital's crowded ward.

Indian Express

18 hours ago

• Indian Express

‘Earliest Indians were migrants…India has been connected to the world from the very beginning,' says historian Audrey Truschke

A quarter of humanity today is made up of South Asians, and for the rest of the world, their lives are constantly being shaped by South Asian culture—be it through films, spices, yoga or religion. US-based historian Audrey Truschke begins her monumental work tracing 5,000 years of Indian history with this crucial reminder to her readers about the impact the subcontinent has made upon the globe for millennia. Truschke's India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent (published by the Princeton University Press) begins with the much-discussed and debated Indus Civilisation, and goes right up till the post-Independence period, including the caste wars of the 1990s and the rise of the Hindu right. Throughout her re-telling of Indian history, Truschke reminds her readers of the vital connections that India has maintained with the world from the very beginning of its existence, through migration, trade and cultural exports. The earliest of Indians, as she reveals, were migrants who built the foundations of urban civilisation and shaped the oldest literary tradition of the region in the form of the Vedas. She also underlines the necessity of understanding the past of the subcontinent through the lens of the marginalised, particularly through the voices of women and the oppressed castes. In an interview with Truschke talks about her findings of the Indus Civilisation, the use of literature written by women to tell the story of Buddhism, as well as the dark side of the history of Hindu nationalism. Excerpts from the interview: Q. Your book title suggests that it is about 5,000 years of Indian history. How and why did you decide on this specific number? Audrey Truschke: For the last century, the conventional beginning of Indian history has been about 4,600 years ago with the Indus Civilisation. That is where I begin my narrative. We rounded up for the title, because publishers like round numbers, so that is where the 5,000 comes from. I do not adhere to this time frame strictly, however. I do start in earnest with the Indus Civilisation, which began around 2600 BCE. But before that, I give a brief account of how people populated the subcontinent in the first place. And that story goes back 1,20,000 years. Q: Why do you choose to begin with the Indus Civilisation? Truschke: The beginning of Indian history geologically goes back millions of years when the subcontinent was formed; the Himalayas are still rising today from the crashing together of two tectonic plates. Human history in India goes back a more modest 1,20,000 years. I begin the book with recorded human history, devoting attention in earnest first to the Indus Civilisation, which was robust enough that it left behind significant material evidence for us to work with. Not all of the past is recoverable. But history is a positivist discipline. We work with the evidence we have. And so there is no value judgment that the Indus Civilisation was somehow more important than other groups of people doing other things in India around the same time. It is simply that they are the ones for whom we have significant material evidence to reconstruct their lifestyles. Q: We know that there is a lot of politics around the Indus Civilisation lately, with different political parties trying to appropriate it around religious or regional lines. How do you respond to that? Truschke: I think every single political party in India will be disappointed with my take on the Indus Civilisation. I know there is a huge push right now for it to be a Dravidian civilisation. There is no positivist evidence that shows that. It is plausible, but a lot of things are plausible. The bottom line is we don't know much about who the Indus Civilisation people were. We know they built cities. We know how they lived. We know a fair amount about their diet. These are certain things that are recorded in the material and skeletal records. But we don't fundamentally know who they were, except that they were from northwestern India. That was a long time ago, and we really don't know how the Indus people map onto modern linguistic, political, and ethnic groups. For those who are making modern political claims, that comes with all the limits of political claims. But insofar as some people are trying to make a historical claim, they need to be a little bit more realistic about the evidence. Q: There is a section in your book where you speak about the first Indians. Could you elaborate a bit on who the first Indians were? Truschke: I am taking from Tony Joseph there, who has an excellent book called The Early Indians. The first Indians were not actually the first Homo Sapiens to set foot on the Indian subcontinent. That would be the group that came 1,20,000 years ago. But they all died out. About 65,000 years ago, another migrant group came. They came eastwards roughly from Africa and entered the subcontinent, and some of those people survived. They have left behind a genetic lineage that is shared by some, not all, modern Indians. It is especially strong in South India. We call them the first Indians because they are the first ones to make it. Q: You also write that you have included a diverse representation of voices, especially those of women and the oppressed castes, in your telling of Indian history. Could you give a few examples? Truschke: Like many historians right now, I too think it is so important to have a more diverse set of voices when we are looking at the past. The thing is, it is hard because the people who tend to be recorded tend to be members of dominant social groups. In South Asia, that means they tend to be men, they tend to be upper caste, and they tend to be Hindu. I am looking for people who don't fit that bill. I think it is important to find diverse voices to explain key shifts in South Asian history. For example, when I cover the advent of Buddhism about 2,400 years ago, I cite from the Therigatha, which is a collection of poems and hymns by Buddhist women, collected in the early centuries BCE. Later on, I bring in female voices, for example, when I talk about the Hindu reform movements and criticisms of Hinduism that arose in the 19th century. I do talk about some of the men, such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, but I also talk about Pandita Ramabai, a Brahmin woman who later converted to Christianity. It is harder to bring in voices from the oppressed castes. From ancient India, for instance, we have very little to nothing that was actually written by Shudras and Dalits. It is not until later that we get texts authored by Shudras and Dalits, but I at least try to bring in texts about them. For example, I have a section where I am talking about caste in the 17th century, and I talk about some Shudra kings. I also print part of a Telugu drama written around 1700 CE. It is written by an upper caste individual, but it depicts a Brahmin in a very poor light. It depicts this Brahmin who is lusting after a Dalit woman and is abusing his Brahmanical privilege. He cites Sanskrit verses to her and plays with religion to try to lure the Dalit woman. This is not a Dalit voice, but at least it is a Dalit character. You work with what you have for the historical evidence. There is no getting around the fact that dominant groups are better represented in the South Asian historical record. That is true of all histories in all parts of the world, but that does not absolve historians of doing the hard work of trying to recover what we can, both about and from the perspective of less-discussed, less-represented groups. Q: You also write that India, throughout its ancient and medieval history, has had global connections. Could you elaborate on some of the key historical moments when India's connections with the world were of key importance? Truschke: India has been connected to the world from the beginning and throughout. How people get to India is a story of repeated migrations. The Indus Valley Civilisation had extensive trade connections with Mesopotamia and, possibly through Mesopotamia, with ancient Egypt. The people belonging to Vedic society, which was founded and flourished after the Indus Civilisation, were also migrants. They came from outside into northwestern India and composed the Vedas. The Vedas are an Indian composition, but the language group of that community does have roots from outside originally. People, things, and ideas also left the subcontinent. And South Asia then has some remarkable cultural exports starting in the few centuries before the turn of the CE era. Of course, Buddhism is probably the most well-known one, which travelled both on the sea trade routes and along the Silk Roads, surviving ultimately largely outside of the subcontinent. There are also stories, such as the Panchatantra, and games like chess and Parcheesi that are still popular across the West today. Then there is Sanskrit that travels east to Southeast Asia. All of this attests to India and the subcontinent more broadly being part of an interconnected world. Q: We know that history in India has become a major topic of debate. How would you say your book addresses the current politics around history in the country? Truschke: Firstly, I think my book is pretty staunchly, openly, and decidedly a non-nationalist history, down to the title. As I say in the introduction, the India that I refer to in the title is not the modern nation state of India. The modern nation state of India was born yesterday from a historian's perspective. It is less than a century old. I use India in the title and throughout most of the book, until the last couple of chapters, in its historic sense of the subcontinent. It is a geographical designation, and it very much includes Bangladesh, Pakistan, and southern parts of Afghanistan. I realise that is going to be a little uncomfortable for a lot of readers who are really used to India being the modern nation state with militarised borders, an army, and a set of nationalist symbols. The second way in which I address nationalism—and I think this will be particularly important for younger readers, under the age of about 30 or 35—is by giving a fair amount of the history of Hindu nationalism. I think Hindu nationalists do not like talking about their own history. There are some dark parts of that history, the Nazi loving stuff, the fascist stuff, the fact that it is largely a European import, and the fact that it was unpopular for most of its existence. Forty years ago, no respectable Indian would touch Hindu nationalism. I think that is very hard to understand if you are 30 years old and living in Hyderabad or Bombay or Delhi or Ahmedabad or wherever, and Hindutva is what you know. My book charts that history, among many other facets of Indian and South Asian histories. Adrija Roychowdhury leads the research section at She writes long features on history, culture and politics. She uses a unique form of journalism to make academic research available and appealing to a wide audience. She has mastered skills of archival research, conducting interviews with historians and social scientists, oral history interviews and secondary research. During her free time she loves to read, especially historical fiction. ... Read More