Do all animals have fun?

[Jessiedog]

Any time you see a raptor around here, especially an eagle, there are always a couple of crows flying nearby, buzzing it, bugging it.

There's no good reason for it that I can see: I think they just enjoy doing it.

the same happens here with buzzards - you see crows mobbing buzzards for no obvious reason.

Actually, they ain't having fun. They are downright angry......Enraged!

It's a territorial thing. All the Corvides (crows, ravens, jackdaws, magpies, jays, etc.) absolutely despise any bird of prey (falcons, hawks, buzzards, eagles, owls, etc.) and will mercilessly mob them given the slightest opportunity. They don't like dem birds of prey anywhere on their "patch" and mob them to drive them out of their territory.

Now. I guess it's possible that after a successful "mobbing" where the offending marauding raptor has been soundly thrashed in ariel combat and dispersed from the area, that the corvides do have some sense of achievement, satisfaction or fun. But the mobbing behaviour, in itself, is deadly serious



Woof

 

[kakuma]

i think fun and hunting go together

look what little kids do - pretend to kill each other for fun

look at video games

'fun' and 'conflict/survival' are nothing like mutually exclusive

 

[Jessiedog]

'fun' and 'conflict/survival' are nothing like mutually exclusive

True!


But I've worked extensively with Corvides (predominately Magpes and Rooks) and especially birds of prey. They are highly instinctive creatures and I've never noticed any behaviours where "fun" in the human sense would explain their behaviour better than "instinct" would. Corvides are smart as far as birds in general go and can learn many new things (in particular, a superb ability to mimic the human voice - better than any parrot I've heard), but they're not that smart.



Woof

 

[s.norbury]

my cat's "having kittens"