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https://www.openculture.com/2022/01/animals-laugh-too-ucla-study-finds-laughter-in-65-species-from-rats-to-cows.html>
"Every pet owner knows that animals love to play, but laughter seems reserved
for humans, a few apes, and maybe a few birds good at mimicking humans and
apes. As it turns out, according to a new article published in the journal
Bioacoustics, laughter has been “documented in at least 65 species,” Jessica
Wolf writes at UCLA Newsroom. “That list includes a variety of primates,
domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, and mongooses, as well as three bird
species, including parakeets and Australian magpies.” This is a far cry from
just a few years ago when apes and rats were the “only known animals to get the
giggles,” as Liz Langley wrote at
National Geographic in 2015.
Yes, rats laugh. How do scientists know this? They tickle them, of course, as
you can see in the video just above. (Rat tickling, it turns out, is good for
the animals’ well being.) The purpose of this experiment was to better
understand human touch — and tickling, says study author Michael Brecht, “is
one of the most poorly understood forms of touch.”"
Via Stefani Banerian and Diane A.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
