Teen gorillas just want to be tickled!

Humans aren’t the only ones who like it in the armpit. Our fellow great apes — orangutans, chimps, bonobos and gorillas — also squeal in response to tickling, and new research shows this behavior may be the evolutionary root of human laughter.

To explore the origins of laughter, Davila Ross and her colleagues tickled infant and juvenile humans, orangutans, chimps, gorillas and bonobos — all great apes — in the armpits or on the palms, feet or necks. These areas are thought to be most ticklish because they are either rarely touched, or are usually in contact with a broad surface. Davila Ross recorded the baby animals as they hooted and squirmed. --Wired, June 2009

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