AMMDI Blyg

There is an urge to rationalize it – yes, no doubt all this frenetic fun has some evolutionary purpose, its how animals in the wild learn to be hunters and killers. But it doesn't seem very efficient. Sharks are pretty good killers but they don't train up by playing (I think!)

Ask Claude

• Your instinct about the "efficiency" puzzle is well-taken, and it's actually a live debate in evolutionary biology. Here's the state of the science:

• On kitten play:

• Cats' play behaviors closely resemble hunting behaviors, and these activities allow kittens to acquire cognitive and motor skills, and to socialize with other cats.

• More specifically, at the time of weaning, kittens begin to act out the behavioral sequences associated with hunting — chasing and stalking moving objects. This "object play" is believed to be important in the development of eye-paw coordination and hunting skills, and the presence of an experienced hunting mother increases the kitten's opportunity to develop hunting prowess.

• But your skepticism about the "practice hunting" explanation is well-founded:

• While play was once thought to help build skills or endurance, studies have found little evidence for these explanations. Instead, play appears to significantly activate many areas of the brain in ways that may enhance brain connectivity and creativity. Bigger-brained species also tend to play more — suggesting play may have evolved to stimulate brain growth and development, making animals more intelligent and behaviorally flexible.

• There's also a more subtle theory: researcher Marek Spinka has argued that play helps animals prepare for the loss of balance they experience when chased by predators, or helps them deal with the emotions after losing an aggressive interaction — play, in short, prepares the brain to handle the unexpected.

• The cost-benefit puzzle is real too: 80% of deaths among juvenile fur seals occur because playing pups fail to spot an approaching predator. Play is also extremely expensive in energy terms — playful animals use around 2–15% of their energy cavorting. For evolutionary biologists, even 2% is significant; there must be a reason for this dangerous activity.

• **And about sharks — you may want to revise your parenthetical!**

• A new study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science offers the strongest evidence yet that sharks engage in play behavior — findings that could force a rethink about shark intelligence.

• Researchers observed sharks (and a skate) behaving in ways that resembled play while testing enrichment toys at Southern California's Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

• Video footage shows sharks swimming through hoops, picking them up with their nose, flicking toys with their tails, and — like in the wild — rushing toward a toy and abruptly changing direction at the last second.

• Porbeagle sharks have also been observed repeatedly rolling in kelp and being chased by another shark with a piece of kelp trailing behind them.

• So the broader picture seems to be: play is not simply about drilling specific skills, but is linked to brain development, flexibility, and handling the unpredictable — and it may be far more widespread across the animal kingdom than we once assumed, even in creatures like sharks that we've long written off as pure instinct machines.

Too much thinking is anathema to play but I keep trying to theorize it...AFAICT it involves substituting local, situated, lightly-held goals for global, abstract, tightly-held ones. Easy for kittens, rather more difficult for humans who are obliged to be serious strivers, at least in our culture. But necessary, especially in times like this.