|
雪后的山坡上，乌鸦像孩子一样滑雪嬉戏，玩得不亦乐乎，这样的一幕总会让人感到惊奇。其实，很多动物都很有“娱乐精神”，比如袋鼠会拳击，狐狸会蹦床，章鱼会玩玩具，鱼儿会相互追逐和跳跃……那么问题来了：对于动物们来说，这些行为真的只是玩耍那么简单吗?科学家们好像发现了其他的答案…… Perched on the edge of a snowy slope, the youngster drops a small, makeshift sled at his feet. He steps onto it and glides down the incline, struggling to keep his balance. When the sled slows to a stop, he picks it up and trudges back up to the top for another go. Again and again he swoops down the slope. This could be a scene from any child’s snow day, but it’s also a description of a sledding crow who happened to get captured on camera. Even if you remind yourself that we humans are prone to misleading ourselves by anthropomorphizing other animals, it’s hard not to see the crow as playful. Without additional context, it’s hard to know what the crow’s really up to , but the crow does do a couple things that scientists would identify as play: His actions appear voluntary, yet pointless—there is no obvious function or benefit to what he’s doing—and he repeats the action several times. As anyone who has accidentally spent hours playing Candy Crush knows, play is fun, but also costly. It takes up time that could be spent doing something productive, or, even worse, it can even be dangerous: Hundreds of people are seriously injured in snowboarding or skiing accidents every year. Yet play is surprisingly common in the animal kingdom. Kangaroos box for fun, octopuses play with toys, foxes jump on trampolines, fish jump and chase. Even wasps have shown evidence of play fighting. | 
