65 Animal Species Laugh Just Like Humans, UCLA Finds

Long before humans invented language, we were already laughing together. Now UCLA researchers have discovered we're not alone in our giggles.

A groundbreaking study identified at least 65 animal species that make play vocalizations, which is essentially their version of laughter. The list includes familiar faces like dogs and apes, but also surprising additions like cows, foxes, seals, mongooses, and even three bird species.

UCLA graduate student Sasha Winkler and professor Greg Bryant published their findings in the journal Bioacoustics after analyzing animal sounds across species. They recorded whether the laughter was noisy or tonal, loud or quiet, high or low pitched.

Some animal laughter sounds remarkably human. Videos show fennec foxes making high pitched giggles that sound like kids on helium. Bonobo chimps make breathy chuckles when tickled, their joy unmistakable on their expressive faces.

Other species laugh in ways we can barely detect. Rats make ultrasonic giggles when playing that require special equipment to hear. German researchers discovered rats actually seek out tickling, suggesting they genuinely enjoy the playful interaction.

The Bright Side

This discovery does more than make us smile at giggling foxes. It reveals something fundamental about connection and play across the animal kingdom.

"When we laugh, we are often providing information to others that we are having fun and also inviting others to join," Winkler explained. The research suggests laughter is an ancient evolutionary signal that says "this is fun, and you're safe with me."

Bryant noted that behavior once considered uniquely human actually connects us to species separated by tens of millions of years of evolution. Our laughter is just the human version of a vocal play signal shared across the animal world.

The next time your dog huffs playfully or you see a video of a chuckling chimp, you're witnessing one of evolution's oldest social tools. Laughter might be the universal language we never knew we were already speaking.