It's not just us! Animals also laugh heartily and do so for ancestral reasons

It's not just us! Animals also laugh heartily and do so for ancestral reasons according to new research.

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Do animals laugh? Of course yes, word of researchers. UCLA primatologist and anthropology graduate Sasha Winkler and UCLA communication professor Greg Bryant revealed in an article published in the journal Bioacoustics.

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Sifting through the themed scientific literature, the couple found that laughter is prevalent in at least 65 species. Animals included cows, domestic dogs, seals, foxes, mongooses, some birds. 

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Bryant in this regard stated:

"This work illustrates well how a phenomenon once considered particularly human turns out to be closely linked to the behavior shared with species separated from human beings for tens of millions of years".

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This is why animals laugh 

Pets through vocalizations similar to our laughter they communicate fun, a desire to share and play. And they sometimes use them for decrease the aggressiveness of any rivals.

Game vocalizations in primates and other mammals often include sounds characterized by wheezing, wheezing, and human laughter would have evolved from these auditory cues into what it is today.  

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According to scholars, our laughter is in fact the human version of an ancient vocal game signal:

“When we laugh, we often inform others that we are having fun and invite others to join in as well. Some scholars have suggested that this type of vocal behavior is shared by many playing animals, and as such, laughter is our human version of an evolutionarily old vocal play signal. "

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According to Winkler and Bryant, there are probably many more laughing animals than currently known, but since the sound may be quieter for some of them, it becomes difficult to spot them.

However, they are convinced that paying attention to other species to understand the form and function of human laughter is of fundamental importance in understanding the evolution of human social behavior. 

SOURCE: Bioacoustics 

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