> “Only intelligent animals play—animals like crows and chimps, dogs and humans.”
Err, I'm barely knowledgeable in this field (so maybe someone can point out something that I'm missing), but I have to nitpick that this strikes me as poor reasoning. Off the top of my head, juvenile squirrels are known to play[1], along with many other species which we would consider less intelligent than cephalopods or even dogs. This just seems like an odd assertion to come from an expert biologist.
Err, I'm barely knowledgeable in this field (so maybe someone can point out something that I'm missing), but I have to nitpick that this strikes me as poor reasoning. Off the top of my head, juvenile squirrels are known to play[1], along with many other species which we would consider less intelligent than cephalopods or even dogs. This just seems like an odd assertion to come from an expert biologist.
[1] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.06.024
Really interesting article, though.