For years, human beings have been attributed certain unique abilities such as emotions (joy, sadness, etc.). However, research shows that much of the animal world has the ability to laugh.
One of the most recent discoveries refers to laughter. A study published in June 2021, in the journal Bioacoustics led by primatologist Sasha Winkler, concludes that at least 65 species can laugh. These include cows, foxes, seals, birds, parakeets, magpies and dogs.
Regarding the latter, Winkler indicates that dogs are in the category of those who laugh when they play or feel like playing. At these times, they usually make special sounds. Humans are not capable of decoding this noise, so to perceive it you have to be very attentive.
The ethologist Patricia Simonet, considered the discoverer of the dog laugh was the first to study this aspect in dogs. In 2001 he recorded the noises of animals in the parks while they were playing and noticed that they made a sound similar to a gasp, but with different frequencies.
“To an untrained human ear, the dog’s laugh would make a sound similar to a hhuh, hhuh“Said the expert.
Simonet described it as a guttural sound and confirmed that it was his laughs, after he put the recordings in front of other dogs and they reacted excitedly. He did the same in a shelter and observed that it helped them relax.
She also realized that if she tried to imitate the sound in front of the dogs, they would wag their tails and get them to approach her happily.
For his part, Winkler defines in his article that in addition to this breathing pattern similar to doggy panting, dogs show certain behaviors that indicate that they are having a good time.
Thus, we can know that he is “laughing” when he makes a posture of greeting or bowing. This is when it stretches its front legs forward and rests them on the ground, while its back legs stretch back.
Other ethologists such as the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Konrad Lorenz, estimate that dogs can also show their smiles slightly on their faces by showing their “tongue a little”.
Source-larepublica.pe