Do Animals Laugh?

Live Science

Human laughter may trace its evolutionary beginnings to vocalizations made during play. This type of "laughing" is found in many mammals and even in some birds.

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00:00Do animals laugh?

00:06People laugh together as a way to connect and bond.

00:11And though the sounds of laughter can vary widely across individuals and groups, the

00:16sound of a laugh is usually recognizable even between people belonging to different cultures.

00:24But what about animals other than humans?

00:28Do they produce sounds of enjoyment, and do these sounds, and what causes them, bear

00:32any resemblance to human laughter?

00:35In other words, do animals laugh?

00:43In humans, laughter can express a range of emotions, from positive feelings like enjoyment

00:48to negative ones such as disgust.

00:53Animals also laugh when they hear a joke, or when they see something that they think

00:57is funny.

01:00And while it's unknown if animals' intelligence includes what humans would call a sense of

01:04humor, many animals produce unique sounds during play, and researchers consider such

01:11vocalizations to be a close analog of human laughter.

01:16Recently, scientists reviewed dozens of studies looking for any mentions in any animal of

01:22vocal signaling during play, and they published their findings in the journal Bioacoustics.

01:29The researchers identified 63 mammal species and two bird species that laughed while playing.

01:36Many of these sounds, such as the purr of a vervet monkey, the ultrasonic trill of a

01:44rat, the whistle and squawk of a bottlenose dolphin, and the peeping of a squirrel monkey,

01:54occurred only while the animals were at play.

01:59Scientists found these vocal play signals throughout the mammal literature, especially

02:04among primates, rodents, social carnivores, and, to a lesser extent, marine mammals they

02:11wrote in the study.

02:13In fact, most primate species, including chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, and baboons, demonstrated

02:20playful laughter, from panting chuckles, lip-smacking and grunts, to cackles, trills, and squeals.

02:30And if you listen to the panting play laughter of primates, it's easy to see how our laughter

02:36may have originated during play.

02:39Some laughter may have started out as a similar panting sound.

02:43That over-evolutionary time became the vocalized ha-ha-ha that we use today.

02:54Laughing Animals, just another one of life's little mysteries.

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