Do animals play?

Hmm.

And we have a lot of playful questions for you.

My name is Kayden, and, and I'm born from Netherlands, and I'm from Korea.

And my question is why do baby animals play?

play?... years old

Caden, I love that question.

Why do baby animals play? Uh, my first to answer to that is a question, you know.

Depends on what kind of animal.

Animals will play for all sorts of reasons.

The number one is for fun, right? There's evidence all over the world that animals play for fun.

It could be maybe a dolphin blowing, uh, rings of air, uh, pockets in the water and going through them for fun.

It could be maybe a crow that's been seen sliding down a rooftop of snow.

No particular reason other than fun.

But there's other what we call, like, very species-specific reasons.

And by that I mean there's a very specific reason why maybe a lion plays the way it does maybe versus a bird of prey like a hawk or maybe versus a goldfish.

So for instance, I could say a cheetah cub will play with its brothers and sisters by doing chase behavior.

So they'll...

It's almost like playing tag, right? So a, a, a brother will chase maybe a sister, chase it, and maybe with its little paws hit the back legs, maybe trip its brother and sister, and it's a lot of fun.

But that also is teaching that baby cheetah how to one day be an adult cheetah, 'cause it's a predator and predators have to eat meat.

So they have to take down another animal, and the best way to do that, for a cheetah, is tripping them, right?

[laughs]

So it kind of depends.

[laughs] So all different animals have different reasons for play.

So some animals do play for fun, but a lot of them when they're babies, they're learning behaviors that they're going to need or use as adults.

Do adult animals play?

Hmm.

And we have a lot of playful questions for you.

My name is Kayden, and, and I'm born from Netherlands, and I'm from Korea.

And my question is why do baby animals play?

play?... years old

Caden, I love that question.

Why do baby animals play? Uh, my first to answer to that is a question, you know.

Depends on what kind of animal.

Animals will play for all sorts of reasons.

The number one is for fun, right? There's evidence all over the world that animals play for fun.

It could be maybe a dolphin blowing, uh, rings of air, uh, pockets in the water and going through them for fun.

It could be maybe a crow that's been seen sliding down a rooftop of snow.

No particular reason other than fun.

But there's other what we call, like, very species-specific reasons.

And by that I mean there's a very specific reason why maybe a lion plays the way it does maybe versus a bird of prey like a hawk or maybe versus a goldfish.

So for instance, I could say a cheetah cub will play with its brothers and sisters by doing chase behavior.

So they'll...

It's almost like playing tag, right? So a, a, a brother will chase maybe a sister, chase it, and maybe with its little paws hit the back legs, maybe trip its brother and sister, and it's a lot of fun.

But that also is teaching that baby cheetah how to one day be an adult cheetah, 'cause it's a predator and predators have to eat meat.

So they have to take down another animal, and the best way to do that, for a cheetah, is tripping them, right?

[laughs]

So it kind of depends.

[laughs] So all different animals have different reasons for play.

So some animals do play for fun, but a lot of them when they're babies, they're learning behaviors that they're going to need or use as adults.

Do adult animals play?