Do any other animals have a sense of humour? If you slipped on a banana skin, are there any creatures that would laugh? (continued)
Mike Follows
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK
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The great apes appear to laugh, suggesting that laughter originated in a common ancestor. A quick internet search, for instance, shows an . A captive gorilla called Koko was taught to communicate with more than 1000 words, using a modified sign language. Apparently, she tied her trainer鈥檚 shoelaces together before signing 鈥渃hase鈥� and making laughing noises at the result.
It is difficult to recognise laughter in other species, so the roll call could be much higher than the 65 species noted by researchers to make laughing noises during play, which range from foxes to orcas and birds. After all, chimpanzee laughter can easily be mistaken for screeching. Rats enjoy being tickled, but the giggles they emit are ultrasonic. Dolphins produce different sounds when larking about than they do when hunting and we assume it is to express pleasure, if not laughter.
Play fights are important among some species, for bonding and for learning how to hunt. Animals 鈥渁ttacked鈥� during play fights make vocalisations that can be interpreted as laughing. Peter McGraw at the University of Colorado has suggested that .
However, we need to avoid anthropomorphising. After all, dolphins look as if they are perpetually happy, but this surely cannot be true. In humans, laughter is quite nuanced. Sometimes it can be to signal that you belong to the in-group. It can also be used to ridicule someone, so it can have a dark side.
Geoffrey Swenson
Bonney Lake, Washington, US
I once experienced a parrot with a profound sense of humour. The owner steered the conversation to some extent, but then the bird took over. It started telling one-liners, and as we talked about the jokes, the bird picked up on the context and spouted off more jokes with perfect comedic timing and laughed at them with us.
It seemed like the parrot wasn鈥檛 merely saying things, it appeared to understand what we were saying and its own replies, as so many of the jokes were in perfect context with our conversation.
Kathryn Smits
Auckland, New Zealand
Some decades ago, there was a colony of myna birds nesting in a tree by our house. Our cat may have climbed up and hurt young birds, so what follows may have been an act of revenge. It was carried out systematically and with considerable glee.
I watched as my cat was lured away by a pair of mynas, quite playfully at first. Dramatically fluttering, they convinced her to follow them to the limb of a tree about 2 metres above the lawn. Once she was up there, quite exposed, they attacked. They pecked her head and bottom until she lost her balance and tumbled. The birds cackled and took off.
What fascinated me was the mirth, the sheer exuberance and intelligence of it all, as well as the cackling laughter. It convinced me that mynas have a sense of humour and probably a sense of justice as well.
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