ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND ANIMAL PLAY
Animals have their own behaviors, and their special ways of playing. Compare and contrast the behaviors and play of canines, felines, equines, primates, etc.
More specifically compare and contrast the behaviors and play of ants, apes, bees, birds, cats, chickens, chimps, cows, dogs, dolphins, donkeys, ducks, elephants, fish, horses, lizards, mice, sea otters, and turtles.
Check out this PowerPoint about “Animal Play,” and then comment on what messages can be communicated by animals, and how these messages are communicated.
Hello Don; Wow! The breadth of the question is stunning. I can only comment on a tiny portion of it.
1. I watched fish behavior (Poeciliidae) for several years and never saw anything that I'd interpret as play.
2. I'm not aware of any papers about play in ants. Perhaps you could suggest a paper for me to read. On the other hand - another hymenopteran group - bumblebees seem to "like" to roll balls around without any apparent reward. Hmmm. All very interesting. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
James: Thanks for the insights. I think that with most animals there isn't much distinction between work, play, and just plain behavior. Much of their "play" is really developing the skills and muscles needed to survive and to thrive.
I am no expert here, but my coursework on the equine nervous system describes how the majority of their motor planning and execution is "pyramidal," controlled by the pyramidal tracts in the spinal cord (and not by spinal cord-brain interaction). In humans, the majority of the motor planning and execution is "extrapyramidal," controlled by tracts that connect with multiple areas of the brain, especially the motor cortex. This feature of equine motion leaves more of their (still relatively small) brain free for involvement with their huge emotional intelligence. As prey animals and herd animals, they must have highly developed abilities with perception and understanding of each other's communications, as well as that of other species, to ensure their survival.
Anecdotally, per my own experiences and those of friends and colleagues who have spent a lot of time with horses, horses exhibit a number of behaviors akin to bumblebees rolling around little balls, as mentioned above, that have no apparent direct goal or relation to survival. However, they have the reward of improved social interaction, which is crucial to their survival. These behaviors could be classified as play, especially since they are followed by the equine body language and vocalizations most associated with freedom from anxiety. An example would be of the very large horse acting as a study participant in the recent data gathering for my research project who learned to grasp the zipper pulls on my fanny pack and open and close the corresponding compartments. This was soon followed by him extracting some of the contents. This did enhance his skills with manipulating objects using his lips. However, he would gently hold the objects in his teeth before me and wait for me to take them back. At the conclusion of this possible play, he would place his nose on top of my shoulder on one side and breathe in and out loudly while looking straight into my eyes for 30+ seconds, demonstrating, at the least, that he felt calm and safe.
Laura: Extremely insightful. Horses and dogs have developed social awareness (with humans, etc.) as a survival and thrival mechanism. Cats not so much. They're friendly, but not social, in the sense that they maintain their independence at all cost. P.S. Play is usually a social mechanismm but not always.
Thanks @Don L. F. Nilsen. Also, I enjoyed your PowerPoint very much! It places a mirror in front of us, and it includes observation, humor (of course), anthropomorphism, and "I swear that animal just tried to tell me something!" moments. Cool!
Laure: In the field of Children's Literature, there's an entire genre of animals in clothes (anthropomorphism), including the wolf in Little Red Ridinghood, the wolf and the three little pigs, the three billigoats gruff, the Hungry Caterpillar, the Velvateen Rabbit, and many others, and in Willie the Pooh, there's Owl Kanga, and Roo. Thanks for bringing anthropomorphism (treating animals as human) into the discussion.
For me, this discussion brings up the philosophical concept of personhood. Who and what is a person? Periodically a news article pops up about an animal who inherits his or her human's estate, the family challenges the will, and the question boils down to whether the animal has personhood. Also, in the movie Ted 2, there's some legal challenge Ted must face because he is not considered to be a person (he's a teddy bear). He goes to court, is found to not be a person, and then is caught on video on a large convention floor kneeling and distraught beside his human (Mark Wahlberg) who has just been crushed by a fallen sign. THEN the courts decide he IS a person. I like looking for, and using, language that shows the writer's opinion (about the horse: "it" vs "he"; about Kanga: "it" vs "she"). Maybe the question of personhood could be at the core of some kinds of humor? I think it is a deep down concern for humans, especially since we are aware of the many types of humans WHO have been viewed as less than people over the millennia.
Charles Henry Turner’s insights into animal behavior were a century ahead of their time
Researchers are rediscovering the forgotten legacy of a pioneering Black scientist who conducted trailblazing research on the cognitive traits of bees, spiders and more...
“The marvellous structures and functions of animals, the demonstration that all animals are evolved branches of one common tree… lead one to recognize and respect the rights of others.”
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https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2023/rediscovering-legacy-charles-henry-turner
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