Are there any animals that laugh?

Question

Do monkeys laugh? Have a sense of humor? My husband says that animals have a sense of humor but don't laugh like we do.....that they have their own animal laugh. Is he crazy?

Answer 1

Perhaps Dolphins if we can learn to hear it?
I used to tickle rub my dogs belly. He would squirm and wriggle pretending at trying to get away while panting and snorting. I took that as giggling like a little kid does when you faux hold them down for a tickling.

Dolphins and Man.....Equals?

by Regina Blackstock
written May 1970
copyright 1970, 2004

Nineteen centuries ago, Plutarch, a Greek moralist and biographer made this statement: "to the dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage". In our own times Barbara Tufty made the comment "he [Dolphins] also exhibits a friendly willingness to cooperate with other earth creatures -- a rare attribute which another animal, Homo Sapiens, has not yet learned to do with any consistency". Apparently there is something quite impressive about Dolphins. Not only now, when we are learning so much more about them, but even in the year 62 AD!

Outside of his striking friendliness, the Dolphin seems to have been blessed with a well developed sense of humor. Dolphins have been known to silently maneuver behind an unsuspecting pelican and snatch its tail feathers -- usually leaving the bird minus a few. Other pranks include grabbing unsuspecting fish by the tail, pulling them backward a few feet as well as bothering slow turtles by rolling them over and over. Once a dolphin was seen placing a piece of squid near a grouper's rock cranny. When the fish came out, the dolphin promptly snatched the bait away, leaving the puzzled fish behind.

In 1965 Anthropologist Gregory Bateson made the discovery that dolphins live in social groups dominated by a leader. This tie is so strong that dolphins kept in total isolation will suffer ill health and possibly death. It has also been observed that dolphins frequently stroke each other with their flippers, hence, indicating that they require physical contact much like humans. A dolphin's skin is extremely delicate and easily injured by rough surfaces--very similar to human skin.

At Marine Studio Oceanarium, Bimbo, an 18 foot pilot whale stopped eating and became aggressive to smaller dolphins in the tank. The trainers, after a long issue, decided that maybe his ego needed bolstering. So they proceeded to drain the tank to the three-foot level. Bimbo, now stranded, began to whistle piteously. Soon all the dolphins gathered around and comforted him with conversation which consisted of whistles, chirps and the usual dolphinese sounds. When the tank was again refilled, Bimbo's manners improved immediately ...Another experiment, done by Dr. Lilly while stimulating parts of Dolphin #6's brain with electrical currents, proved that dolphins are capable of making more sounds than we had been previously aware of. Apparently Dr. Lilly's probe stimulated the part of the brain controlling the vocal cords. I couldn't find the exact number of sounds the dolphin produced, as it had been taped. However Dr. Lilly made the comment that he heard more types and variations of whistles, buzzings, rasping barks, and Bronx cheer-like noises than he'd ever thought a dolphin capable of.

Another dolphin was taped, after Dr. Lilly said "the TRR is now ten per second" (train repetition rate) repeating "TRR" in a high pitched, Donald Duck, quacking-like voice. The same dolphin also picked out "three hundred and twenty three" and also mimicked every laugh laughed in the lab at that time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScYPTnrVqEY

A dolphin chooses its own name as an infant and uses it throughout its life.

"It seems like the animals hear what's around them, and then they make up their own whistle," Janik said. "They either develop something original ... or they base it on parts of the whistles around them."

Regardless of the method, the young dolphins want to make their call stand apart from the calls of their closest relatives. Communicating by sight is difficult underwater, so dolphins use these calls to let other dolphins know they're nearby. A dolphin will also call out its name if it's lost and distressed, hoping relatives will come to its aid.

Dolphins are some of the most talkative animals around, even though we don't know what they're saying.

"Their repertoire of calls probably numbers in the hundreds," Janik said. "Some of them are food calls, but for most of them we have no ideas what they're for."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwk1dENn_sY

Life can be funny, and not just for humans.

Studies by various groups suggest monkeys, dogs and even rats love a good laugh. People, meanwhile, have been laughing since before they could talk.

"Indeed, neural circuits for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the brain, and ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals eons before we humans came along with our 'ha-ha-has' and verbal repartee," says Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist at Bowling Green State University.

When chimps play and chase each other, they pant in a manner that is strikingly like human laughter, Panksepp writes in the April 1 issue of the journal Science. Dogs have a similar response.

Rats chirp while they play, again in a way that resembles our giggles. Panksepp found in a previous study that when rats are playfully tickled, they chirp and bond socially with their human tickler. And they seem to like it, seeking to be tickled more. Apparently joyful rats also preferred to hang out with other chirpers.

Laughter in humans starts young, another clue that it's a deep-seated brain function.

"Young children, whose semantic sense of humor is marginal, laugh and shriek abundantly in the midst of their other rough-and-tumble activities," Panksepp notes.

Importantly, various recent studies on the topic suggest that laughter in animals typically involves similar play chasing. Could be that verbal jokes tickle ancient, playful circuits in our brains.

Meanwhile, there's the question of what's so darn funny in the animal world.

"Although no one has investigated the possibility of rat humor, if it exists, it is likely to be heavily laced with slapstick," Panksepp figures. "Even if adult rodents have no well-developed cognitive sense of humor, young rats have a marvelous sense of fun."

Science has traditionally deemed animals incapable of joy and woe.

Panksepp's response: "Although some still regard laughter as a uniquely human trait, honed in the Pleistocene, the joke's on them."

Answer 2

No. I do not think your husband is cRaZy, in the general sense. I think he may even be right.

Animals surely have to have a sense of humor. Think of how many times they run into walls (like my Sassy) or fall off the back of a chair or the couch. Surely they have to think its as funny as we do!

Heres a little story of just how big a sense of humor animals (cats) really do have.....

**We had this great 10-year-old cat named Jack who just recently died. Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him, and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom. Well, we have 3 kids, and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick. LOVES it! He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So, finally one day, I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to, but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.

Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and trying to get ready for church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I'm trying to nurse my little oe at the same time I'm putting on my makeup. Everything is a mess, and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood. We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I'm looking for Eli. I've searched everywhere, and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chap- stick very carefully to Jack's rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said, "Chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right -- their little butts do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth.

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt. **

Answer 3

Primates definitely do. Have you ever seen a movie or video where a chimpanzee smiles really big, points at something, and slightly throws itself back? My dog does, or at least I think so. I would say some animals that are more complex than others can laugh, too!

Answer 4

Hyenas laugh...humans laugh, monkeys do have a sense of humor, but they don't necessarily laugh. No, your hubby's not crazy, he's right.....

Answer 5

hyenas cry is like a humans' laugh
monkeys do have a sense of humor but I don't know if they actually laugh or what it sounds like.

Answer 6

hyenas don't laugh there cry sounds like a laugh, and monkeys will hoot and jump up and down.

Answer 7

hyenas ,
it sounds like the devil is laughing very demonic

chimps dont laugh it looks like it but when they bare their teeth and seem to grin it is a sign of embarrisment ,like us blushing or being shy