The Kansas Wetlands Education Center’s prairie dogs, Indy and Sweet Pea, play wrestle, seemingly for sheer joy. Or is there a survival strategy in play?
Wrestling, boxing, tag, hide and seek, all games we play as children and, as it turns out, games other animals also play. From octopuses to elephants, many species of animals have been observed playing.
We’ve all watched dogs and cats play and participated in play with them, but have you ever seen prairie dogs play? Our two neutered male prairie dogs play every spring, rarely any other time of the year. Although this year, they began playing in late January. Not sure if that’s a sign of an early spring but the recent warm weather might be another indicator.
Prairie dogs wrestle, box, chase, jump on and nip each other during play, in wild and captive situations. As social animals, they have a particular body language and vocalization signaling play - head slightly down and an arched, vertically held tail. One will run or pounce on the other and a tussle usually results. If things get too rough, they begin yipping at each other, with one usually pinning the other on its back until he calls “uncle” in prairie dog language.
As part of their “coterie” or family group, I’m often included in their play. They’ll run at my hand, pat it with front paws and run away, emitting a call that I describe as a “gritch” – a low type of chuckle. If I raise my hand they’ll nip and grab at it, then run away again. Or they may hide behind something, dart out and box my hand and nip. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt! Actually they don’t bite that hard, never drawing blood or even bruising that can be seen. It’s a little different for us though, since we don’t have fur to protect us.
I had only seen deer playing on videos until this year. On a cold day in early January, I happened to look out the window and saw a yearling white-tail deer go trotting by in the front yard, followed by two other yearlings. Round they ran, across the drive, up the hill, out of sight and then back around again. Sometimes they would whirl around and change directions, chasing each other and changing leaders. They played for about 5 minutes, before moving out of sight.
Octopuses at the Seattle Aquarium have been observed blowing streams of bubbles at empty pill bottles, causing the bottles to shoot away. The octopuses repeated the action 20 times or more. Crocodiles in zoos have been seen pushing balls through the water in their enclosures. All play, according to the defined criteria for play must be: self-chosen, spontaneous, for its own sake; repeated over and over; exaggerated; and the animal must be healthy and free of stress.
Are they actually playing for the joy of the action or is it a survival strategy? A question behaviorists are still trying to answer. According to Lynda Sharpe, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, researchers have tried to prove the survival strategy by observing whether young animals that play a lot were more efficient at getting food – they were not.
How about reducing aggression within a social group? According to her research of meerkats, play did not reduce aggression. Within meerkats, play also did not seem to increase social bonding.
However, other researchers have concluded, after studying a species of ground squirrels and feral horses, that those animals that played more were better mothers, in the squirrels, and more likely to survive their first year – in horses. If young domestic rats are reared alone or with drugged companions that won’t play, as an adult, the rat “loses its cool in social situations.” The behavior can be reversed however, by letting the rat play for just one hour per day, so researchers concluded play was the cause of the rat’s reaction to stress.
Behind every behavior there seems to be a reason – even play! So go outside and play with your kids and/or pets.