Play and Exploration in Children and Animals

Wild justice and fair play: cooperation, forgiveness, and morality in animals

“…Individuals must cooperate with one another when they play -they must negotiate agreements to play (Bekoff 1995). Fagen (1993, p. 192) noted that 'Levels of cooperation in play of juvenile primates may exceed those predicted by simple evolutionary arguments…' The highly cooperative nature of play has evolved in many other species (Fagen 1981;Bekoff 1995;Bekoff and Allen 1998;Power 2000;Drea and Frank 2003;Burghardt 2005). Detailed studies of play in various species indicate that individuals trust others to maintain the rules of the game (Bekoff and Byers 1998).…”

“…While there are few data concerning the actual benefits of social play in terms of survival and reproductive success, it generally is assumed that short-term and long-terms functions (benefits) vary from species-to-species and among different age groups and between the sexes within a species. No matter what the functions of play may be, there seems to be little doubt that play has some benefits and that the absence of play can have devastating effects on social development (Power 2000;Spinka, Newberry, and Bekoff 2001;Burghardt 2005).…”

“…Animal play is obvious and few if any people would argue that play is not an important category of behavior (for definitions of social play see Byers 1981, 1998;Fagen 1981;Power 2000;Burghardt 2005). Animal social morality, however, is a more slippery concept.…”

“…Why might they try hard to share one another's intentions? While play in most species does not take up much time and energy (Bekoff and Byers, 1998;Power 2000), and in some species only minimal amounts of social play during short windows of time early in development are necessary to produce socialized individuals (two 20 min play sessions with another dog, twice a week, are sufficient for domestic dogs from 3 to 7 weeks of age (Scott and Fuller 1965)), researchers agree that play is very important in social, cognitive, and/or physical development, and may also be important for training youngsters for unexpected circumstances (Spinka, Newberry, and Bekoff 2001). While there are few data concerning the actual benefits of social play in terms of survival and reproductive success, it generally is assumed that short-term and long-terms functions (benefits) vary from species-to-species and among different age groups and between the sexes within a species.…”

Vision, touch and object manipulation in Senegal parrots Poicephalus senegalus

“…While in most birds neophilia is restricted to juvenescence, in psittacines it continues throughout life, even in situations not directly motivated by food [29]. This suggests that exploration and object play are important for continually updating information within a dynamic environment (summarized in [4]). Therefore, we investigated whether parrot visual fields have an additional function to the traditional drivers of avian visual field configuration: foraging and predator detection [13,14].…”