Do Animals Get Ticklish?

At one glance, being ticklish is entirely pointless. Yet most people, and yes, some animals, find it hilarious. Most people are ticklish to some extent. Let's explore whether the same applies to other animals.

Researchers haven't fully understood why only some people are ticklish while others aren't and whether being ticklish offers an evolutionary advantage or not. But we do know enough to classify tickling into two: the gentle kind that feels itchy and the more intense rib-probing tickling associated with laughter, and in some cases, pain. The former feather-type sensation called knismesis is usually associated with triggers to brush something away. It is possible for a person to 'tickle' themselves in this way. The latter, more pleasurable tickling called gargalesis, occurs when a ticklee gets touched repeatedly in the body’s more sensitive areas.

Knismesis is widespread in animals: many of them have evolved behaviour to ward off creepy crawlies—horses shudder to shake off flies from their backs and even sharks have ticklish spots near their snouts. Since this is related to body defence, even lizards, insects and virtually all animals exhibit similar behaviour. Gargalesis, however, is rare in animals and has been observed only in a few mammals. Experts believe it to have evolved as a strategy for social bonding.

At some point in evolutionary history, laughter became funny. The "I'm gonna get you-" tickle-threats are one of the few jokes you can tell to both humans and chimps. Such 'feign tickles' are especially enjoyable to non-human apes. However, note that it is just the closely related apes like gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees that produce human-like sounds. In contrast, the more distantly related apes responded to tickles with noises that can't be easily recognized as laughter. "If you tickle a chimpanzee, its laughter is a panting sound", says Provine, a neuroscientist who has extensively studied tickling, yawning, and hiccupping in other animals.

Rats have also exhibited tickle giggles. When scientists tickled the rodents, they made the same ultrasonic chirping sounds that they use during play. In a recent study, by implanting electrodes in the brains of these laboratory regulars, researchers have identified the brain region that seems to drive the trait—a key to the origins of ticklishness in people. Another study found that “tickled rats had higher arousal levels based on fecal corticosterone, which may relate to their anticipation of interaction with humans”.

At this point, it is pretty easy to misunderstand that we can observe typical human behaviour like tickling only in species with higher social intelligence. But in all these mammals, intelligence doesn’t lead to laughter; instead, play results in it. So, identifying other animals that laugh in response to tickling might only be a matter of listening closely to the sounds they make in play.

On a side note, we should be wary when applying human characteristics to animals. There are many viewers eager for cute animal videos on the internet, including animals being tickled. One can find many anecdotal vlogs of owls, penguins and even dolphins being tickled. However possible that these correspond to tickling and its resulting happiness, as media-literate readers, it is recommended to be cautious of these interpretations.

Note the International Animal Rescue's Tickling is Torture campaign. Viral videos of slow lorises being tickled have gained millions of views online. But along with encouraging illegal trade of these endangered animals, they are not taking pleasure from being tickled: their aw-so-cute response is, in reality, an expression of fear.

This is one of the many instances leading us to admit how hard it is to accurately assess another animal’s feelings. Even in humans, there is a wide range of opinions about tickling: pleasurable to some, painful to others; some see it as a tool of torture, others, one of erotica. With humans ourselves disagreeing about this, it is better to be cautious of tickling cats and dogs the next time around: not all of them may enjoy being tickled as much as you believe them to.

Beyond all that, research into tickling has shown that animals are complex beings capable of positive emotions comparable to ours. Understanding this marks our relationship clearly with them, and what it means to be human.

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