PoP Book 06.2s MidRes - Flipbook - Page 30
The Hobgoblin
items her mother had used in the displays, and manipulated them
herself without any training, to start her own window-cleaning routine.
But what happened next became even more legendary than this fun
housekeeping chore.
‘Play is the hobgoblin of animal behaviour, mischievously
There was different lab etiquette in 1972, and at the end of a routine
tempting us to succeed in what, judging from the number
observation session, one of the staff, who was smoking a cigarette,
of failed attempts, seems a futile task: defining play.’
blew a big cloud of smoke against the glass with Dolly looking right at
Robert Mitchell
him. Dolly was intrigued, and impulsively swam away to her mother.
She nuzzled at her, and then came right back close to the viewing port.
When you frame play as one of humans’ most outstanding features people
While the researcher’s jaw hung slack, Dolly blew out a large mouthful
inevitably counter by saying, but animals play, so what’s the difference?
of her mother’s milk into the water, engulfing her own head — and giving
Their dog leaps for a Frisbee or flings shredded cotton wool around the
an amazingly similar effect to the wreaths of smoke she’d just seen.
house while they’re out. They know what animals look like at play, and
After this dramatic episode, Dolly regularly used the smoking-dolphin
they know what humans look like at play, and they can’t see any obvious
distinction. The first thing to say, then, is that they’re usually only framing
stunt as a way of getting attention. And it got her a lot.
exuberant, energetic visible play, and ignoring any other hidden layers.
As most people don’t have a dolphin pool in their back yard, they probably
won’t be referencing a scene like the one you just read.
That scene is exciting not only because it’s unique, but for all the behaviours,
abilities and boundaries it displays and hints at. All the places this exploration will be going. Now here’s a very different scene with a different animal,
which touches on even wider ideas of play.
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•
Bongo Marie and Paco were never friends, even after twenty years living
on neighbouring perches in Sally’s kitchen. African Grey Marie always
acted as though Paco, in her bright green plumage, was an inferior parrot.
So the day Sally pulled a freshly roasted chicken out of the oven and set
it down on the worktop next to her cage, it was a comic moment too good
for Bongo Marie to pass up. She bent an eye to the steaming browned
bird, threw back her beak and cried “OH NO, PACO?!!”.
Through teary laughter Sally pointed out that Paco was actually still very
much alive on her perch across the room. And without missing a beat,
but in a much more disappointed voice, Marie croaked “Oh no!”. Then
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laughed hysterically at her own joke.39
•
species. We see specific movement qualities and signal patterns characterising play in pets, primates and other mammals, in birds, and even
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3.01
a few fish and reptiles. And the animals who indulge themselves in
3.11
important from our point of view.
Play is a central part of neurologic
al
growth and refinement — a way
to build complex, responsive, adaptable,
and cognitively flexible brains.
•
Okay, so the condensed theory of
the evolution of play in animals is
that
certain species achieved a level of
metabolic energy which meant they
could engage in the kind of vigorous,
excess activity of we call rough’n’
tumble. Their circumstances were
sufficiently buffered against stress
and food shortage, and they were
aroused enough to want to burn
off
some of that extra sap. The combined
benefits of even the most simple
play set up virtuous upward spirals,
with one benefit leading to others.
The opportunities afforded by play
inevitably opened-up novel ways
of dealing with changing environme
nts — things as subtle as applying
existing behaviour in new forms —
a process you might call creativity.
Birds who used to tear bark off trees
to reveal the bugs beneath, found
they could use the same actions on
the foil tops of those old milk bottles
delivered to doorsteps. It didn’t require
major invention, just a tiny tweak
of ‘motor babbling’ — the random
physical testing and trialling that
human babies do all day. And because
they’re innate imitators, other
birds were quickly able to copy the
bottle-opening pioneers.42
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It might not be the kind of play that
makes you laugh, but it’s exploratory
play for testing and discovering,
just like we do. And if basic creativity
is
breaking away from existing patterns,
then this is play and creativity in
full effect. So, what we see highlighted
in this chain of cause and effect is
the first of our own major play traits:
imitating.
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•
‘Play generalises skill
by
varying and recombining
previously mastered behaviour
al routines in new contexts,
freeing the animal from
the unanticipated limitatio
ns
of these routines.’
Peter K Smith
Let’s bring on Conwy Lloyd Morgan
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Play Beasts / The Hobgoblin
(1852 – 1936) — British ethologist
and psychologist.43 Morgan had
much to say about imitative behaviour
in animals. Specifically, he suggested
‘interesting’ actions would be
copied more than the mundane stuff.
In this way, innovative activity would
be picked out over the familiar. He
categorised copying in four classes:
instinctive imitation, intelligent imitation,
intentional imitation, and
reflective imitation.
Play Beasts
55
Play Beasts / The Hobgoblin
Section 03
Visible play occurs in only a small minority of the earth’s million or more
