Tackling Hominin Tickling: Bonobos Share the Social Features and Developmental Dynamics of Play Tickling With Humans.

It is under debate whether intersubjectivity-the capacity to experience a sense of togetherness around an action-is unique to humans. In humans, heavy tickling-a repeated body probing play that causes an automatic response including uncontrollable laughter (gargalesis)-has been linked to the emergence of intersubjectivity as it is aimed at making others laugh (self-generated responses are inhibited), it is often asymmetrical (older to younger subjects), and it elicits agent-dependent responses (pleasant/unpleasant depending on social bond). Intraspecific tickling and the related gargalesis response have been reported in humans, chimpanzees, and anecdotally in other great apes, potentially setting the line between hominids and other anthropoids.

Sows' Responses to Piglets in Distress: An Experimental Investigation in a Natural Setting.

Domestic pigs () possess complex socio-cognitive skills, and sows show high inter-individual variability in maternal behaviour. To evaluate how females-reared under natural conditions-react to the isolation calls of their own piglets or those of other females, we conducted observations and experimental trials. In January-February 2021, we conducted all-occurrences sampling on affiliation, aggression, and lactation (daily, 7:30-16:30 h) on six lactating and four non-lactating females at the ethical farm Parva Domus (Turin, Italy).

Does the Domestication Syndrome Apply to the Domestic Pig? Not Completely.

The 'domestication syndrome' defines a suite of features that domesticated animals possess as the result of the artificial selection operated by since the Neolithic. An interesting anthropological question is whether such features, including increased tameness and reduced aggression, apply to all domesticated forms. We investigated this issue in the domestic pig ().