Plenty of animals laugh, from chimpanzees and gorillas to rats, dogs and even some parrots. At least 65 species make play sounds that count.1UCLA. Animals laugh too, UCLA analysis suggests Their laughter is mostly about play and touch, not jokes, so it often sounds more like panting or chirping than a human giggle. In several of these animals the sound does real work, keeping rough games friendly and spreading a playful mood to others who hear it.
Great Apes Laugh in a Way We Would Recognise
Chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans make laugh-like sounds during wrestling, play chasing and tickling, the same situations that set off a toddler.2Wikipedia. Laughter in animals – Wikipedia The sounds usually come with a relaxed, open-mouthed play face during rough-and-tumble games.3Summit SFU. What Animals Can Laugh? From Chimps to Rats Scientists know the play face well, but recordings of the sounds themselves are still fairly scarce.4Summit SFU. What Animals Can Laugh? From Chimps to Rats The sounds are quiet and breathy, which makes them easy to miss in a noisy group, and most recordings come from tickled juveniles rather than from free play.
Ape laughter does not sound quite like ours. It often comes across as breathy panting that goes in and out with each breath. Human laughter chops a single out-breath into “ha-ha” bursts with a clear voice. Chimpanzee laughter is closer to ours than orangutan laughter, which matches how closely related we are.
What sets it off is mainly touch and play, not verbal humour. Some orangutans have reacted with laughter to magic tricks performed by people,5Wikipedia. Laughter in animals – Wikipedia which hints that surprise plays a role, though that is mostly reported rather than tested at scale.
When researchers compared the acoustics of tickled young orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and human babies, the sounds lined up like a family tree.6PubMed. Reconstructing the evolution of laughter in great apes and humans Tickle laughter in all five species is therefore considered the same trait, inherited from a common ancestor.7PubMed Central. The evolution of laughter in great apes and humans Even the distinctly human features, smooth steady voicing and laughing only on the out-breath, can be traced to traits shared with apes.8PubMed. Reconstructing the evolution of laughter in great apes and humans That does not mean apes laugh at the same things we do, only that the underlying sound-making trait is shared.
Bonobos even tickle much as human families do. Older animals do more of the tickling and younger ones receive more of it,9PubMed Central. Tackling Hominin Tickling: Bonobos Share the Social Features and Developmental Dynamics of Play Tickling With Humans much like a parent tickling a child.
Why Laughter Evolved from Panting During Play
Play sounds in primates and other mammals often include panting.10Bioacoustics. Play vocalisations and human laughter: a comparative review One leading idea is that laughter began as the noise of laboured breathing during play, which others learned to read as “this is fun.” Play often involves running and wrestling, so heavy breathing is a natural by-product. This is a leading hypothesis rather than a settled fact, since we cannot observe the ancestors that first did it.
A breath sound suits the job. Rough play looks a lot like fighting, so partners need a cue that it is friendly. A sound tied to relaxed panting is hard to fake during real aggression, and hearing it signals to others that the wrestling is meant in fun.
Human laughter may have taken over a second job. Monkeys and apes keep friendships through grooming, which only works one partner at a time. One researcher proposes that as early human groups grew too big to groom, laughing together filled the gap as a group bonding signal.11PubMed Central. Laughter and its role in the evolution of human social bonding Our laughter is far more social than an ape’s, done with many people at once.
You can still see the older roots today. People laugh mostly in company, often at ordinary conversation rather than jokes, and babies laugh at tickling long before they understand humour.
Rats Laugh When Tickled, at a Pitch We Cannot Hear
Rats make 50 kHz calls during play. These are ultrasonic, meaning well above the roughly 20 kHz limit of human hearing.12PubMed Central. Who’s laughing? Play, tickling and ultrasonic vocalizations in rats You need a bat detector or special microphone to hear a rat laugh. Human tickling that mimics rough play draws more of these chirps than anything else tested,13PubMed Central. Laughing Rats Are Optimistic and tickled young rats respond by hopping, darting and approaching the tickling hand.14PubMed Central. Sex differences in 50 kHz call subtypes emitted during tickling-induced playful behaviour in rats
Tickling a rat means rubbing its belly and back in quick strokes, like a playmate pouncing. Gentle, consistent handling matters, because rough handling causes fear.
Counting chirps alone would not show feeling, so researchers pair the counts with behaviour and with choices the rat makes. Rats will work to be tickled again, which suggests the experience is rewarding rather than merely startling.
The number of chirps rises with how positive a tickled rat feels on separate mood tests.15PubMed Central. Rat 50 kHz calls reflect graded tickling-induced positive emotion Rats that chirp a lot when tickled also lean toward optimistic choices.16PubMed Central. Laughing Rats Are Optimistic An optimism test asks whether a rat treats an ambiguous signal as promising or threatening, which reads mood without relying on the calls themselves. How much a rat chirps when tickled stays fairly stable, and it predicts how the animal does on tests of anxiety and depression.17PubMed. Tickling-induced 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalization is individually stable and predicts behaviour in tests of anxiety and depression in rats
Rats also have a separate lower 22 kHz call that signals distress.18Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Ultrasonic vocalizations as indicators of welfare for laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) The two calls differ in pitch, so a researcher with the right microphone can tell a contented rat from a distressed one without seeing it.
If you keep pet rats, you will not hear the chirps, but hopping and chasing your hand are visible signs. Stop if your rat freezes, squeaks audibly or tries to escape.
Both sexes laugh, a little differently. Female and male young rats both link joyful chirps with play,19PubMed Central. Sex differences in 50 kHz call subtypes emitted during tickling-induced playful behaviour in rats but females make more flat-toned chirps during play than males.20PubMed Central. Sex differences in 50 kHz call subtypes emitted during tickling-induced playful behaviour in rats
Your Dog’s Laugh Is a Breathy Play Pant
Dogs make a play pant, a forced, breathy “hhuh-hhuh” exhalation distinct from normal panting.21OSF Preprints. Dogs produce distinctive play pants: Confirming Simonet Each pant lasts only about a tenth to three tenths of a second and is low-pitched with no tone to it.22OSF Preprints. Dogs produce distinctive play pants: Confirming Simonet
Ordinary panting is a steady, regular rhythm, usually with the tongue out, and tends to follow heat, exercise or nervousness. The dog laugh is more forced and huffing, and it shows up during play instead of after it. Look at the whole dog: a play bow, bouncy loose movement and wagging alongside the sound point to play. Because each pant is so brief, a phone recording slowed down can make it easier to pick out.
Hearing it can calm other dogs. Playing recordings of dog laughter to shelter dogs reduced their stress behaviours, and the dogs approached people more and showed friendly signs like lip licking.23Canine Welfare Science. Dog Laughter: Recorded Playback Reduces Stress Related Aggression in Shelter Dogs
Some owners copy the huffing sound to invite a dog to play, which works best when the dog is already relaxed and in a good mood. Avoid it when the dog is guarding food or a toy, because a play invitation is the wrong message in a tense moment. Imitating the dog laugh will not fix an anxious or aggressive dog, who needs proper help from a trainer or vet behaviourist.
Parrots and Other Laughing Animals
A survey of published research found play vocalisations in at least 65 species.24UCLA. Animals laugh too, UCLA analysis suggests The list includes many primates, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals and mongooses.25UCLA. Animals laugh too, UCLA analysis suggests Three birds made it too, including parakeets and Australian magpies.26UCLA. Animals laugh too, UCLA analysis suggests
The number is a minimum, since a species appears only if someone studied and published its play, and some play calls are too quiet or high for people to hear. The list also uses play sounds as its definition, which is broader than human laughter.
The kea, a New Zealand parrot, has its own distinct play call.27PubMed. Positive emotional contagion in a New Zealand parrot Playing that call to wild kea made both young and adult birds play more.28PubMed. Positive emotional contagion in a New Zealand parrot They did not join the caller, though. They started fresh games or played alone with objects.29TheScienceBreaker. ‘Laughing’ together: bridging avian-mammalian differences The call did not invite them to play but put them in a playful mood, a case of catching a mood from hearing it.30TheScienceBreaker. ‘Laughing’ together: bridging avian-mammalian differences
People likewise laugh more when they hear others laugh, even on a recording. Kea are the first birds shown to spread a good mood this way.
Other animals catch moods by sound too. Pigs that could only hear a pen mate reacting to a reward started playing themselves.31PubMed Central. Emotional contagion in nonhuman animals: A review Dolphins make bursts of pulsed sounds during play, though this is less well studied.32Swimming With Dolphins. Dolphin Communication Sounds
What Laughter Does for Animals
Adult rats play rougher than young ones, so their play is more likely to turn into a fight.33PubMed. Avoiding escalation from play to aggression in adult male rats: The role of ultrasonic calls That is when a clear friendly signal matters most. When one unfamiliar male rat could not call, play fights were far more likely to turn aggressive,34PubMed. From Play to Aggression: High-Frequency 50-kHz Ultrasonic Vocalizations as Play and Appeasement Signals in Rats and only pairs with a silent partner escalated to serious biting.35PubMed. Avoiding escalation from play to aggression in adult male rats: The role of ultrasonic calls Rats also trade matching or answering calls as they play, which seems to keep things friendly.36PubMed. Avoiding escalation from play to aggression in adult male rats: The role of ultrasonic calls
For pet owners, play noises like a dog’s pants are one sign the game is friendly, alongside loose, bouncy body language. When the play sounds stop and bodies stiffen, step in.
Calls can also show welfare. Because joyful and distressed calls differ, rat calls can show how a whole group feels, not just the caller, even animals out of sight.37Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Ultrasonic vocalizations as indicators of welfare for laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) Tickling is already used to improve lab rats’ welfare, as a way to give them a positive experience.38PubMed Central. Who’s laughing? Play, tickling and ultrasonic vocalizations in rats Computer programs are being developed to pick out animal calls from long recordings,39PubMed Central. Applying machine learning to primate bioacoustics: Review and perspectives which could let carers monitor mood without sitting and listening for hours.
There are limits to calling all this laughter. We can’t ask animals what they feel, so joy is inferred from behaviour and choices. The evidence is strongest for apes and rats, and thinner for many other species.