Wild Health

A fascinating foray into zoopharmacognosy, the newest field in biology, reveals the many ways that animals medicate themselves by eating and using the right plants and foods to promote health and fertility, from the desert tortoise that travels miles to mine the calcium needed to keep its shell strong, to the mammals that rub citrus oils and odoriferous resins into their coats as insecticides and antiseptics against insect bites. Reprint.