Laughter, as you know, prolongs life, and just has a good effect on our well-being. It turns out that not only people, but also some animals are not averse to giggling. And they prefer to do it in good company.
Animals can laugh like people – American scientists came to this conclusion. Primatologists and anthropologists at the University of California at Los Angeles analyzed the play behavior of animals and birds and found that vocal signals, very similar to laughter, were recorded in at least 65 species: primates, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, mongooses, as well as in birds, including parrots and Australian magpies.
According to the authors of the work of primatologist and graduate student in anthropology Sasha Winkler and professor at the University of California Greg Bryant, laughter was originally peculiar to animals, and humans appeared only in the course of evolution.
Researchers believe that animals use similar sound signals when they play. Thus, they show their location to relatives.
Winkler and Bryant believe their study is shedding light on the functions of human laughter and helping to better understand the evolution of our social behavior.
According to some scientists, a smile is nothing more than a grin.
These studies were published in the journal Bioacoustics. And earlier, laughter as a type of social interaction has already been described in primates, rats and some species of birds.
So, back in the 1970s, the British primatologist Jane van Lawick-Goodall, observing monkeys in nature reserves, noted that during love games, females often tickle males. Those, in turn, in response, emit specific “gurgling” chuckles. The same mother chimpanzees sometimes do with their cubs.
Meanwhile, parrots can even arrange whole humorous performances. This was noticed by the explorers of the South American jungle. One of the birds plays the role of a clown: the parrot pretends to have fallen from a branch and cannot fly up. Kindred are watching this and laughing in unison.
In addition, many animals can smile. According to some scientists, a smile is nothing more than a grin. Such an idea, for example, was promoted by ethologist Konrad Lorenz, who believed that a smile can be called a “bite without a bite,” since we often have a desire to bite an object that causes strong positive emotions.
So, tickling puppies or two or three year old children, you may notice that both of them, laughing or smiling, sometimes bite you – these are the so-called “play” bites.