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Study: Fish just wanna have fun

"Play is an integral part of life and may make a life worth living," Burghardt concluded.

By Brooks Hays

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 21 (UPI) -- It's only natural to assume small-brained animals like fish would care about little outside of the quest for food and mates, but according to a new study by researchers at the University of Tennessee, some of them -- like cichlid fish species -- like to play.

Of course, scientists can't ask a fish if it is having fun; they must develop a definition of fun that works in the context of the animal kingdom. That's what Gordon Burghardt, an evolutionary biologist at Tennessee, has done, allowing him to finger such organisms as wasps, reptiles and invertebrates as capable of play -- of having having fun.

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"Play is repeated behavior that is incompletely functional in the context or at the age in which it is performed and is initiated voluntarily when the animal or person is in a relaxed or low-stress setting," said Burghardt, lead author of the new study on cichlid fish.

While studying three cichlid fish over the course of two years, Burghardt and his colleagues observed a behavior that fits his definition of play. The three fish would periodically strike at a bottom-weighted thermometer, and would do so regardless of the presence or absence of food or other fish. The researchers believe the fish, like other animals, are drawn to the righting motion that happens when the thermometer is pushed down and then returns to its original position.

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"We have observed octopus doing this with balls by pulling them underwater and watching them pop back up again," Burghardt said. "This reactive feature is common in toys used for children and companion animals."

Burghardt says it's important for scientists to readjust their understanding of play and see unexplained behaviors as part of an animal's evolutionary development -- not random.

"Play is an integral part of life and may make a life worth living," Burghardt concluded.

The study was published this week in the journal Ethology.

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