Tickling Techniques from Science News on Vimeo. Last month, I posted about laughing rats. Well, here’s the follow-up: chortling chimps, orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos. From the article posted on Science News’s website: Don’t try this at home, but tickling a gorilla, orangutan, bonobo or chimp can inspire bursts of grunting sounds. Yes, that’s laughter, says…
Rats and mice clearly don’t get the cute and cuddly points that most other animals get. Check out this video that accompanies this Wall Street Journal article published last weekend about improving conditions for research rodents. I interviewed Amber Alliger last year for an article I wrote for Science Careers about the challenges and moral…
Did you know that rats laugh when you tickle them? (I learn all sorts of interesting things from living with an animal behavior guy). Not only that, they vary the intensity of their laugh response depending on their level of enjoyment. Humans can’t pick up these high pitched giggles and guffaws without a bat-range listening…