Why Do Animals Play?

Why do some animals play-and some don't? That's what Evelyn wants to know. In this special collaboration with Outside/In, we investigate how and why animals - and people! - of all shapes and sizes play. Play scientists Juny Chu and Jackson Ham help us ask the important questions like: Can you tell an octopus to play? And what can rats teach us about why taking turns is important? It turns out that play is serious science!

This episode is a collaboration with Outside/In from New Hampshire Public Radio, and co-reported with executive producer Taylor Quimby. Taylor recommends the show for older kids and teens, and suggests these family-friendly episodes for listening together:

The $1,000 balloon

What's living under your porch

You can make kids hike, but you can't make them hikers

MEET OUR FEATURED EXPERTS:

Cognitive Scientist Junyi Chu studied the psychology of play at Harvard University. She's always been interested in how having fun can help people learn to creatively solve problems.

Junyi Chu is a psychologist currently at Stanford University in California. Her research is focused on learning how play can help children develop their creativity. She hopes her research can help children learn how to be better adults.

Jackson Ham is a PhD candidate at the University of Lethbridge, studying how play impacts the brain

Jackson Ham is interested in the ways that play affects how rats feel and behave. He thinks it’s really cool to learn about how playing can change how smart or happy a rat is. Jackson wants to understand more about how play helps not just rats, but also other animals and even people!

Rats Love to Play!

If there's one cool fact we learned from the episode, it's that many animals love to play just as much as humans do. In this video, you can see four different ways scientists observe rats playing--with each other, and with humans! Did you know that rats giggle when you tickle them?