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.

Transcript

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,

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

00:23But what about animals other than humans?

00:28Do they produce sounds of enjoyment?

00:30And do these sounds, and what causes them, bear any resemblance to human laughter?

00:36In other words, do animals laugh?

00:43In humans, laughter can express a range of emotions,

00:47from positive feelings like enjoyment to negative ones such as disgust.

00:53People also laugh when they hear a joke, or when they see something that they think is funny.

00:59And while it's unknown if animals' intelligence includes what humans would call a sense of humor,

01:05many animals produce unique sounds during play,

01:09and researchers consider such vocalizations to be a close analog of human laughter.

01:15Recently, scientists reviewed dozens of studies looking for any mentions in any animal of vocal signaling during play,

01:24and 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,

01:43the ultrasonic trill of a rat,

01:46the whistle and squawk of a bottlenose dolphin,

01:50and the peeping of a squirrel monkey

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

01:58Scientists found these vocal play signals throughout the mammal literature,

02:03especially among primates, rodents, social carnivores,

02:08and, to a lesser extent, marine mammals, they wrote in the study.

02:12In fact, most primate species, including chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, and baboons,

02:19demonstrated playful laughter,

02:21from panting chuckles, lip-smacking and grunts,

02:24to cackles, trills, and squeals.

02:30And if you listen to the panting play laughter of primates,

02:33it's easy to see how our laughter may have originated during play.

02:38Human laughter may have started out as a similar panting sound

02:43that, over evolutionary time,

02:45became the vocalized ha-ha-ha that we use today.

02:54Laughing animals.

02:55Just another one of life's little mysteries.

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