image: This images shows a vigorous play session between two infant chimpanzees. The individual on the left is biting a foot of his playmate. view more
Credit: Elisabetta Palagi
Playful behavior is widespread in mammals, and has important developmental consequences. A recent study of young chimpanzees shows that these animals play and develop much the same way as human children. The work, to be published in the Nov. 16 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE, can therefore also shed light on the role of human play behavior.
The authors of the study, Elisabetta Palagi and Giada Cordoni, of the University of Pisa in Italy, found that chimpanzee solitary play peaks in infancy, while the time spent in social play was relatively constant between infants and juveniles. However, the type of social play changed quite a bit as the animals grew up, in terms of measures like complexity and playmate choice. In comparing these behaviors to previous work conducted with humans, they found that both species show significant quantitative and qualitative development in play behavior from infancy to juvenility. Moreover, both chimps and humans consistently use playful facial expressions to communicate and build social networks.
They also analyzed playmate choice and found that both humans and chimps prefer peers for play partners. Dr. Palagi explains that this is the first research comparing the ontogeny of play behavior in chimpanzees with that of humans, in a standardized way. It is important, because this kind of human data often comes from psychological research, not from ethological research.
Citation: Cordoni G, Palagi E (2011) Ontogenetic Trajectories of Chimpanzee Social Play: Similarities with Humans. PLoS ONE 6(11): e27344. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027344
Financial Disclosure: The authors would like to thank University of Pisa, which hosts the research (computer use and permitting an employer, the corresponding author, to perform the research). ZooParc de Beauval and Dierenpark Amersfoort offered some free meals to the observers and a car from the B&B to the zoo and vice versa. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interest Statement: ZooParc de Beauval and Dierenpark Amersfoort were funders of this study. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
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