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, 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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