Does this orang-utan cracking up at a magic trick prove animals have a sense of humour?
Not just apes, but also dolphins and rats also appear to be easily amused.
It’s a question ethologists have been asking for a long time. Do animals have a sense of humour? The video above suggests they do. An orang-utan at a Barcelona zoo was in hysterics last week when he saw a simple trick.
A visitor first showed the ape a chestnut in a cup, and then, by simple sleight of hand, showed him an empty cup, with the chestnut gone. The orang-utan, who had been watching proceedings carefully, opened his mouth in a wide grin after the big reveal, and then flopped on he back to enjoy a hearty laugh.
At least, that's how it seemed to us. The orang-utan’s expression was exactly the one we associate with a laughing human, even if we don’t know for sure what the animal is thinking.
It’s not unthinkable that the Barcelona zoo orang-utan found it funny. Scientists at Camp Leakey in Borneo have discovered that living with orang-utans can involve quite a battle of wits. The animals steal canoes, lock humans out of their cabins, and refuse to defecate when they realise their excrement is being collected. If these are not signs of a sense of humour, what is?
Pet owners, especially those with dogs, will often swear that their non-human wards laugh, play, tease and emote just like humans.
But scientists are more cautious while attributing anthropomorphic characteristics to animals. In the 1990s, Washington University researchers tickled rats only to find that they emitted ultrasonic chirps and the sensation stimulated positive areas of their brains, much the same way human children would react while playing and laughing.
And then there is this dolphin, which seems most amused by a girl doing cartwheels outside its tank. So what if dolphins always look like they’re smiling – this one must be laughing out loud, right?