“Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, and company, when playing together, like our own children,” writes Charles Darwin in his 1872 classic, The ...

It was a big day for Mo, a black-headed caique. He’s a small parrot, not as big as a pigeon, with green wings, a white belly, and a black and yellow head. Mo lives by himself inside a large cage at ...

In humans, play is considered to be a sign of happiness and good health, and has long been recognized as an important component of child development. Play continues into adulthood, where it may take ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Picking your child's first school can be one of the hardest choices you ...

I've studied various aspects of play behavior in a wide variety of nonhuman animals (animals) for decades, focusing mostly on members of the "dog family" (canids), while some of my students have ...

The word gets used loosely, so the science tightened it. Gordon Burghardt, a biologist at the University of Tennessee, spent years building a precise five-criteria definition: play must be voluntary, ...

Animal play isn't just limited to mammals. From spiders to birds to octopuses, non-mammals also know how to have fun. In April 2013, on board the unmanned spacecraft BION-M, a thick-toed gecko ...

The animal world is full of games. And tucked in among wrestling monkeys, belligerent birds and wily coyotes are lessons for us all. By Erik Vance As a sophomore in college I interned at a lab that ...

In some species, youngsters play to develop skills they’ll need as adults. But in other animals, adults seem to frolic for the fun of it. By C. Claiborne Ray A. Many immature mammals practice hunting ...