Every pet owner knows that animals love to play, but laughter seems reserved for humans, a few apes, and maybe a few birds good at mimicking humans and apes. As it turns out, according to a new article published in the journal Bioacoustics, laughter has been “documented in at least 65 species,” Jessica Wolf writes at UCLA Newsroom. “That list includes a variety of primates, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, and mongooses, as well as three bird species, including parakeets and Australian magpies.” This is a far cry from just a few years ago when apes and rats were the “only known animals to get the giggles,” as Liz Langley wrote at National Geographic in 2015.

Yes, rats laugh. How do scientists know this? They tickle them, of course, as you can see in the video just above. (Rat tickling, it turns out, is good for the animals’ well being.) The purpose of this experiment was to better understand human touch — and tickling, says study author Michael Brecht, “is one of the most poorly understood forms of touch.”

Laughter, on the other hand, seems somewhat better understood, even among species separated from us by tens of millions of years of evolution. In their recent article, UCLA primatologist Sasha Winkler and UCLA professor of communication Greg Bryant describe how “play vocalizations” signal non-aggression during roughhousing. As Winkler puts it:

When we laugh, we are often providing information to others that we are having fun and also inviting others to join. Some scholars have suggested that this kind of vocal behavior is shared across many animals who play, and as such, laughter is our human version of an evolutionarily old vocal play signal.

Generally, humans are unlikely to recognize animal laughter as such or even perceive it at all. “Our review indicates that vocal play signals are usually inconspicuous,” the authors write. Rats, for example, make “ultrasonic vocalizations” beyond the range of human hearing. The play vocalizations of chimpanzees, on the other hand, are much more similar to human laughter, “although there are some differences,” Winkler notes in an interview. “Like, they vocalize in both the in-breath and out breath.”

Why study animal laughter? Beyond the inherent interest of the topic — an especially joyful one for scientific researchers — there’s the serious business of understanding how “human social complexity allowed laughter to evolve from a play-specific vocalization into a sophisticated pragmatic signal,” as Winkler and Bryant write. We use laughter to signal all kinds of intentions, not all of them playful. But no matter how many uses humans find for the vocal signal, we can see in this new review article how deeply non-aggressive play is embedded throughout the animal world and in our evolutionary history. Read “Play vocalisations and human laughter: a comparative review” here.

How Sounds Are Faked For Nature Documentaries: Meet the Artists Who Create the Sounds of Fish, Spiders, Orangutans, Mushrooms & More

Download Animals and Ethics 101: Thinking Critically About Animal Rights (Free)

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

Animals Laugh Too: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or get our Daily Email. And don’t miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.

But in terms of our daily lives, many of us have also altered our style of dress as well. “Business casual” takes on a whole new meaning when you’re conducting business virtually via your living room couch.

When it comes to #pandemiclife, pants are no longer about fashion or style, but comfort. (Preferably with an elastic waistband- thanks, UberEats. Or for some, no pants at all, because why.even.bother.)

This past year has obviously been one of the weirdest yet. But in case the pandemic hasn’t twisted reality enough yet, Target has some suggestions for our “socially-distanced spring” 2021 fashionwear, ladies, and they are certainly fashion pioneers with this one.

Target has released a line of dresses that can only be described as “pandemic prairie”, and one woman’s impromptu photo shoot sporting one of the dresses is both hilarious and fitting.

This delightfully deliberately fashion faux pas began when Facebook user Lorca Damon posted a pic of the dresses she’d seen in her local Target, with her amusing observation:

Target has decided if we’re gonna suffer a pandemic, we might as well look like we just lost the farm after locusts ate our crops.

I grew up in the 80’s on a steady diet of Little House On The Prairie; I definitely a hardcore fangirl of the Ingalls family. But I can safely say that dressing like Laura Ingalls was, and is a HARD PASS.

(And while I’m sure the amazing Ma Ingalls could whip up these beauties with her trusty needle & a bolt of cloth from Mr. Olsen’s general store, no, Target. Just no.)

When Laura Waters spied this post shared on her friend Regan McDowell’s Facebook page, she clearly thought, “Challenge accepted.”

She not only cackled along with the rest of us in amused disgust, but….

She bought the “pandemic prairie” dress. And has the pics to prove it.

Laura staged an elaborate photo shoot to accentuate this unique dress’ features. And boy, does she nail it.

This poignantly somber black & white artistic shot clearly says, “Pa lost the farm… dang locusts again.” … with a subtle Lizzie Borden vibe.

But this dress is still up for a bit of whimsy, as Laura’s next shots clearly illustrate:

(Pandemic prairie) girls just wanna have fun! They sure can frolic in the leaves… once the fall harvest is done. Which should be easy, since the whole “locust eating all the crops” thing.

Nothing accentuates a high dress neckline like big hair, amirite? When it comes to the hair, go big or go home… which should be easy, since the pandemic means HOME. Always home.

One of the perks to the dress? You can really work it, girl. Or work the fields in it, at least, in your own little “hoe-down”:

Target’s “Prairie Pandemic” dress is not just good for hoes –pun intended– but also for  mows:

But all work and no play (and months of social distancing) make Prairie Laura a dull girl, so this dress is definitely versatile for playtime, too:

Or not.

But lest you think farming fellas might think this style unattractive, check out this sultry pic; it screams, “Feeling cute… might delete -or whitewash the barn, churn some butter, milk some cows, knit a blanket, make bread from scratch, kill a turkey with my bare hands- later.”

But this come hither dress apparently brings the c- well, you know. Never mind.

Fashion perk: You could give birth right from under this dress while hoeing the locust-ravaged fields, wipe the newborn off with the dress hem, & wrangle an impromptu baby carrier out of the lower skirt… never breaking stride.

Fashionable AND functional- thanks, Tar-jay!

The best part? The dress’ loose flowing style is great for minimizing any baby weight (or pandemic paunch… again, thanks UberEats!). You’ll be looking good, feeling good, and up for another roll in the hay in no ti-

Oh. OH.

Although Target’s prairie pandemic style seemed laughably ludicrous, we must give props to Laura Waters for effectively illustrating just how… versatile this dress could be, especially if you’re maintaining a locust-ravaged pioneer farm.

Or, you know, hanging out at home with nowhere to go because of our current virus-ravaged reality. Whatevs!

While we still don’t know what Target was thinking in marketing this awful dress style, we can thank Laura for reminding us that we while fashion may be fleeting, humor is forever.

You can see her full post here. 

Do you go to a church that plays a countdown prior to the service beginning?

Videos | 10th Jan 2015