Teen gorillas just want to be tickled!

submitted by chilaxe
1 decade 5 years 9 months 1 week ago
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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chilaxesays...

I thought this highlight from the article was fascinating:


“Laughter serves as an emotional contagion,” said biologist Jared Taglialatela at Clayton Sate University. “It serves as a way of getting everyone on the same page. Secondly, it serves as a way for individuals to inform their social partners about their intentions, as well as provide information and feedback about their own emotional state.”

In other words, the laughter continuously tells an animal’s playmates that he is happy and merely fooling around, with no intention of picking a fight. This type of play builds social bonds in many mammals, including other primates and mammals like dogs and rats, which are also thought to emit sounds while being tickled.

Unlike other apes, humans can laugh without any contact or threat of contact, as their “play” is often cognitive or linguistic. 

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