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.