LUDUS ANIMALIS

Lecture on ethics and how to approach non-human animals

2012-02-27T19:42:00.001+08:00

I had a great pleasure to attend a lecture by Professor Claudia Egerer at the City University of Hong Kong today. She presented on the most prominent theoretical stances towards the 'question of the animal' including Derrida, Heidegger and Köhler as well as discussed animal ethics in the works of Coetzee and Beckett.

I was happy to hear some of the works I have been reading during the last year being discussed by a senior academic with such a great insight into animal ethics and literature. After the lecture I am even more convinced that I should not consider orangutans as a homogeneous audience and group them as a species, but follow Derrida in observing individuals instead.

However, I would argue that this approach ensues 'naturally' from every respectful meeting with a non-human animal. At least this is how I felt after spending nearly two weeks with Is and Bento in Indonesia. They are no longer representatives of what we can categorise as 'the orangutan' for me, but two individuals with special characteristics and specific importance for me as another individual.

Oceanic interplay

2012-02-24T09:35:00.000+08:00

A rare case (as far as contemporary scientists have observed) of cross-species play between bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales has taken place in the Hawaiian waters recently. A video posted to Science Bulletins by the American Museums of Natural History suggests that dolphins and humpback whales engage in an activity that seems so cooperative and non-aggressive that it must be play. What happened in two recorded occasions was that "a dolphin lay across the head of a whale. The whale lifted the dolphin six times, the dolphin sliding back into the water after each 'ride'." This is an excellent example of how combining the bodily advantages of two species can result in new enjoyable activities for both. The video is available on YouTube.

Thanks for sharing, Douglas!

Animal play reviewed

2012-02-22T10:11:00.003+08:00

Pierre-Olivier Lassonde, a final year student from the French International School in Hong Kong, has spent this week as an intern at the M-Lab. Pierre did a wonderful work studying the reasons for animal play yesterday and wrote the following summary. Thank you very much, Pierre!

Tell me...Why do animals like to play?
By Pierre-Olivier Lassonde, February 2012

The answer seems so obvious, but the more you think about it, the less you know. Is it for “practice”? It could be since animals often play when they are young, and it is natural since they need to develop their muscles. Yet, studies show that exercising is not directing play. Afterwards another idea was proposed, animals played as if they had a “surplus” of energy. It is true that play is only found in mammals that are healthy, but there is nothing that proves that they need to spend every bit of energy they have left.

A current explanation is that play admits animals to train their bodies for the “unforeseen/unpredictable”. Play usually includes a lot of actions that imply quick/exaggerations of movements. Conceivably there are different reasons that explain why animals play...undoubtedly there does not have to be only one reason why they play. But in the end there has to be a justification why it is so common in some genus. Besides play is dangerous and exorbitant.

Another enigma researcher’s face when contemplating play is designating it in a way that determines a behavior as play. It is challenging to observe their way of playing in some context, like fighting, for example. Indubiously, there are times it is partly apparent that animals, for example dogs, are playing and having fun. But there could be, at some small degrees, sometimes when it is hard to tell.

References:
Wisegeek
Scientific American
Institution for Creation Research

1st photo by Flickr user Abysim, 2nd photo by Flickr user spencer77.

Orangutan facial recognition study wins an award

2012-02-20T14:33:00.000+08:00

The following introduction to orangutan facial recognition comes from Yosuf Haydary in the Netherlands. With his groundbreaking research, Yosuf won the Working Tomorrow Graduate Award (WTGA) public award 2011 earlier this year. Many congratulations, Yosuf! I hope to work on exciting orangutan enrichment technologies with you in the future.

Long live the Orangutans!
By Ing. Yosuf Haydary, February 2012

A year ago when I came across the assignment to research the possibility of using facial recognition technology to identify an orangutan, I knew almost nothing about these amazing arboreal apes. All I knew was that a possible positive result of this research might contribute to saving them. I accepted the challenge.

In five months research, trouble shooting and trial and error I learned how facial recognition works for us, the humans. The eyes and the eyebrows play the most significant role in this technology. Of course other facial features like nose, mouth, kin, cheeks and ears are important, but when it comes to detection of a face, eyes and the eyebrows have such a unique form, shape and color contrast that little effort is required to confirm the presence of a face on a picture.

Applying facial recognition which is designed for the humans did not result positive for the orangutans. The main reason is the lack of color contrast in the eyes. Different than us, the orangutans have very dark eyes where the white part is in almost all cases not visible. This was found out when pictures of orangutans were modified and their eyes were replaced with a pair of humans eyes.

The research resulted that the present facial recognition cannot be applied for the orangutan. However, modifying this technology and adapting it will make it possible to build an orangutan facial recognition system. Such a system will help register individual orangutan both in shelters and in the wild. This will result in a database which can help us understand the orangutans better and the way they live. Eventually this information can be used to help protect these beautiful apes.

Now, after a year I not only have learned more about the orangutans, I have also met great people like Dr. Willie Smits, Dr. Hanna Wirman and many others who supported me in this project and who try to make this world a better place. They have initiated another great project, TOUCH, which stands for Technology to Orangutans for Understanding and Communicating cross-species for greater Harmony. I hope I will be able to have any contribution to this as well.

Lastly, the research is awarded with WTGA public prize 2011! I congratulate all those who have made this possible and I thank them immensely. But, it would not have been possible without the orangutans at the first place, so Long live the orangutans!

Ape gaming reviewed

2012-02-09T13:00:00.000+08:00

BBC Nature offers a great overview of apes with computers in a recent article entitled Ape versus machine: Do primates enjoy computer games? While our relatively new project wasn't noted by them, it is still one of the very few ape-meets-a-touchscreen projects where the software being developed is actually designed as a game and for entertainment (instead of cognitive testing, among other purposes).

For example, Dr Tara Stoinski from Zoo Atlanta in Georgia says that the software they use "are not games, [the orangutans] are doing problem-solving." Games, too, are primarily about problem solving, but the mechanics of reward and increasing challenge, among other characteristics, are particularly important in games.

These amazing projects have always been inspiration and background for my continuing efforts to offer computer game enrichment and to facilitate cross-species communication among orangutans - most happy to see them being written about and noted by the public.

Wildlife playgrounds

2012-02-08T14:36:00.003+08:00

It's fascinating how the playful affordances of children's playground facilities are easily acknowledged by 'wild' animals. YouTube features videos of foxes and goats jumping on trampolines and other species, such as raccoons, exploring a slide.

We tend to think these 'artificial' technologies are poor alternatives to children's 'natural' explorations into forests and other 'nature' spaces and places. But if they are fun for wildlife, shouldn't we instead set up some in wildlife parks, too? Would these animals still enjoy them, keep exploring and remain interested?

Some cool videos of Foxes on a trampoline, Goats on a trampoline, Raccoons on a slide and Fox on a slide.

Update February 9th: Doug recommended a video of a sledding crow - cool!

The first official sequel for a game for non-human animals?

2012-02-06T15:09:00.004+08:00

Friskies Cat Fishing was such a great success that they have now launched Cat Fishing 2! The leaderboard currently features Louie, Magic, JoDi and Twinkie - all with 1400 point scores. According to reviews, the fish are now more sensitive to touch and the game itself more challenging. I wonder if it is that cats are getting better in playing or that the designers realised they are generally more able than what they initially thought...

Mastering the pigeon hole principle from inside

2012-01-30T10:54:00.000+08:00

Late last year The New York Times wrote about a piece of research that argues pigeons can count. Damian Scarf, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago, in New Zealand, tried the same experiment [that had earlier been conducted with rhesus monkeys] with pigeons, and he and two colleagues report [...] that the pigeons did just as well as the monkeys." The study suggests that if this ability did not evolve separately in birds and primates, they might have a common ancestor that already mastered maths way before dinosaurs.

It also seems that touch screen technology is very suitable for birds, too. Next step, I propose: math games for pigeons.

Scarf, D., Hayne, H. and Colombo, M. Pigeons on par with primates in numerical competence. Science, 334(6063): 1664.

Photo a screen capture of NY Times website.

South China Morning Post on orangutan play

2012-01-24T16:28:00.001+08:00

South China Morning Post covered TOUCH project broadly this Sunday. With Dr. Willie Smits, we were on the cover and in the Science and Technology section. "The Touch project strives for enrichment - meaning orang-utan happiness - as its goal, but is one of the first that actually allows humans to join in the game", Kanglei Wang writes.

Hopefully this article encourages more scholars, designers, activists and sponsors to join this exciting and valuable project! Rest assured we will continue discussing the project with the representatives of the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens in order to provide technologically mediated enrichment for the recently born orangutan twins and their family, too.

Do we need more proof of non-human animal altruism?

2012-01-17T14:41:00.000+08:00

USA today article reports chimpanzees "don't bother warning other chimpanzees already alert to the dangers, a kind of cleverness once seen as unique to people". Since there have been various studies suggesting that altruism is indeed a common animal trait instead of a 'humane' feature, "the finding adds to recent scientific suggestions that the evolutionary roots of language, and altruism, may reside in awareness of others' thinking that goes back more than 6 million years, to the common ancestor of humans and chimps". (Thanks Gino for sharing the link.)

Late last year, South China Morning Post wrote about empathy in rats. Given a choice between munching on a chocolate treat and helping another rat escape from a restrain, the tested rats chose to help their peers. Jean Decety, a psychology and psychiatry professor from the University of Chicago is quoted explaning that "there are lot of ideas in the literature showing that empathy is not unique to humans, and it has been well demonstrated in apes. But in rodents it was not very clear [before]".

Recently, I also read about the altruism and empathy of primates from Frans de Waal's Our inner ape. Such behaviour draws on an ability to take another's knowledge into account.

Crockford, C., Wittig, R.M., Mundry, R. and Zuberbühler, K. Wild chimpanzees inform ignorant group members of danger. Current Biology, 29 December 2011.

de Waal, Frans. Our inner ape. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005.

Photo by Flickr user foshie.

Technologies of care

2012-01-16T18:19:00.002+08:00

The Groombot project by Taylor Veltrop demonstrates some possibilities of avatar-based telepresence in animal care. The cat in question seems pretty indifferent regarding who does the combing. Yet I am sure there is a significant difference between the smooth and gentle movements of a human hand and the rough robotic caressing. Nevertheless, such tele-care and mediated touch, even if automated, are something I would like to see being applied to the care of captive animals in the future.

Science Mag on "Happy pigs"

2012-01-16T16:45:00.001+08:00

Current issue of the Science Magazine mentions the Dutch pig gameplay project in their news section. As I discussed in an earlier post, a group of artists and researchers aims to deliver games to pigs who spend their short lives in often poorly enriched environments. Science writes that the "main idea is to get people thinking about their relationship with pigs, which are largely 'invisible animals' until they end up on our plates." I wanted to do this update since the Playing with Pigs website seems to be up and running with some new content and videos. Important work - happy to see it being written about!

More about Is and Bento

2012-01-10T18:23:00.000+08:00

Tired but delighted I have returned from Tasikoki Animal Rescue Centre. Having had the pleasure to spend almost two weeks with two captive orangutans, I feel much wiser and knowledgeable about what are the constraints and affordances of designing games for them. Is and Bento were truly excited about the touch screen and kept returning to it whenever it was on. I let them play Boohbah Zone and showed them various pretty orangutan girl pictures on the screen. The days in the rain forest, however, went fast as the dark of the evenings was really pitch black.

Playroom construction advanced a lot while I was at Tasikoki and I am hopeful the entire setup will be ready later this week. It means Is and Bento will be able to touch the screen without the hindrance of the cage in between. For the project it means I will be able to start following their play online via two webcams. Can't wait!

Many thanks Simon, Angie and all volunteers at Tasikoki who helped me with the practical arrangements and showed their interest and encouragement for the project. Looking forward to traveling back to Tasikoki as soon as possible!

Orangutan gameplay at Tasikoki

2011-12-30T20:30:00.000+08:00

Curious and excited greetings from Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. I have been here for the TOUCH project game testing two days now, and have been kindly introduced to two orangutans, Is and Bento, by Programme Manager Simon Purser and the founder of the place, Dr. Willie Smits. Bento is more easy-going, but I believe I need the help of the game to get through with Is.

Since neither Bento nor Is had used computers before, we got a sweet start with the touch screen yesterday. This meant spreading peanut butter and honey on the screen and letting the apes get used to the idea of touching it nicely by claiming their shares of the treat with their fingers. This went very well, but it also seemed that the box in which the screen was temporarily installed gained at least as much attention as the actual screen. In fact, when we carried it towards the cage, both orangutans immediately came close to watch what was going on, and Is later started playing with his own wooden box to share the experience with us (I have not seen them playing with the box in any other occasion!). Is also practiced his impressive strength by pulling and pushing the screen box as soon as the sweet treats were all swiped from the screen.

Today we advanced to screens with moving images using an iPad which Willie brought with him. Both apes recognised many of us in photos Willie shared on the small touch screen and Is even took a picture (using his tongue) by himself. My photo was not among those that were kissed by the apes when showed to them, but I wish to repeat the experiment after I have stayed here a bit longer. Actually, it was only today that I felt comfortable touching Is and Bento and interacted closely with them rather than through playing with objects (such as through a throwing game in which Is and I played ball with an old durian shell). It felt rather nice when Is later gave me several pieces of fruits he was enjoying himself.

What next? There are five men here working hard to get the actual play room ready. It will have the screen and cameras installed and a little viewing hole with security glass prepared for me. We tested the computer we are going to use and the custom-made orangutan-proof touch screen today and everything is working as should. Many thanks for Olli for technical help!

While waiting for the play room to be built, we will let the apes try to interact with the screen with a picture on it through the cage tomorrow. They can easily operate the screen with their long fingers from a short distance. Looking forward to another amazing day here in Indonesia!

Ant crusher a killer app for amphibians, too?

2011-12-23T11:55:00.000+08:00

Alongside reptiles, also frogs have an advantageous bodily existence regarding Ant Crusher. Thanks Charlie for sharing this link of an American Bull Frog not getting satisfactory rewards from the game.

"I can do anything"

2011-12-15T19:27:00.003+08:00

This bearded dragon is pretty good at Ant Crusher! Thanks, Mie, for the tip.

Media coverage

2011-12-12T13:15:00.001+08:00

As I wrote in my previous post, during the fist week of December our partner in research, Dr. Willie Smits, gave various lectures in Hong Kong. Related to an event at the Island School during which we both gave a talk (Willie's one was obviously the true highlight of the evening), there appeared many good opportunities for us to share our project with the local media.

Island School students' visit to Tasikoki and Willie's work with orangutans and in reforestation were in focus, but I also got to share the TOUCH project with the reporters of Apple Daily, Sharp Daily, Sing Tao Daily News and South China Morning Post (Young Post), all of which covered us in their stories. Later that week, before Willie's TEDx Hong Kong talk, we visited RTHK for an interview with Morning Brew, Phil Whelan.

Making our work more visible in Hong Kong hopefully helps to build this project together with various local parties and spreads the word among younger audiences. I am very happy that there is lots of interest!

Upcoming talks

2011-11-22T17:06:00.001+08:00

Next week Dr. Willie Smits, a great advocate of sustainable environmental care and the orangutan specialist of our orangutan gameplay project, will be giving three talks in Hong Kong.

The first one will take place at the Island School on November 28th at 8 pm. I will join him during the presentation and provide my short introduction to game development for orangutans.

The second talk will be part of the Wangari Lecture Series at the Helena May at 7.30 pm on the 29th.

Finally, Dr. Smits will talk at TEDx Hong Kong at the Polytechnic University on Friday the 2nd. The event will run from 11.00 am till 8.00 pm.

Proxy tactility with non-human animals

2011-11-09T17:40:00.001+08:00

Researchers at the The Keio-NUS CUTE Centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Keio University were forerunners when it comes to technologically mediated human-animal interaction. Their Poultry Internet project has been exhibited around the world since 2004.

As described in a research paper from 2006, the project has resulted in various human-poultry systems of tele-tactile interaction. Similarly to our project among orangutans, their work has aimed both to create meaningful, equal interaction between humans and non-human animals and to promote animal welfare.

Robotic and VR technologies that transfer human touch to the poultry as well as poultry leg movements to the humans were developed. While the project is largely described from the point of view of its human users (who are the ones choosing when and how to interact with the other species), the study suggests that the researched animal subjects chose to enter a room with a tactile jacket more often than a room without it. An introductory video to the project is available here.

Lee, S.P., Cheok, A.D., James, K.S.T., Debra, G.P.L., Jie, C.W., Chuang, W. and Fabriz, F. A mobile pet wearable computer and mixed reality system for human-poultry interaction through the internet. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 10(5): 301-317, 2006.

Animal art reviewed

2011-11-01T19:22:00.000+08:00

I came across two (1 & 2) nice lists of non-human animal 'artists' including Koopa the turtle who has produced more than 800 paintings, elephant Hong who creates representative paintings, a black rhino Mishindi who spends his spare time painting and Stewie the tamandua who paints in this video.

Most of the animals contribute to what could be called 'conservation art' that benefits the artists' own species when masterpieces are sold to collectors. Such artworks seem to be selling up to $1,700.

At least some of these animals paint for food. It would be nice to know how many of them actually enjoy creating and if their works reflect their mood etc. Furthermore, painting with a brush is very much a human tradition of creating artworks - there must be space to invent more natural tools for each individual species. Or better, find the ways in which these animals already create art in their natural habitats. Spiders and their webs are a good example. Ernst Haeckel's book Art forms in nature (1974) depicts what in animals' creations might look like art through the eyes of a human.

Some references of popular animal art books:

Burton, S. and Busch, H. Dancing with cats. Chronicle Books, 1999.
Burton, S. and Busch, H. Test your cat's creative intelligence. Ten Speed Press, 1996.
Busch, H. and Silver, B. Why cats paint: A theory of feline aesthetics. Ten Speed Press, 1994.
Haeckel, E. Art forms in nature. Dover Publications, 1974.
Komar & Melamid, Fineman, M., Schmidt, J. and Eggers, D. When elephants paint: The quest of two Russian artists to save the elephants of Thailand. Harper Paperbacks, 2000.
Lenain, T. Monkey painting. Reaktion Books, 1997.

Orangutan cultures

2011-10-25T13:57:00.002+08:00

One of the most influential works on primate cultures is the study of Japanese macaques on the island of Koshima, who culturally transmitted the tradition of washing sweet potatoes. Alongside scientific papers, various documentaries have been made on them, such as this one.

This week, researchers from the University of Zurich published an important article on orangutan cultures. The article, "Culture and Geographic Variation in Orangutan Behavior" from Current Biology, was noted by UK Wired, among others. Hence, one more study to suggest that orangutans do indeed have sophisticated cultures. The authors propose that "individual and cultural plasticity provide a plausible pathway toward local adaptation in long-lived organisms such as great apes and formed the evolutionary foundation upon which human culture was built."

Krützen, M., Willems, E.P. and van Schaik, C.P. Culture and Geographic Variation in Orangutan Behavior. Current Biology, 20 October 2011.

Primate pastime

2011-10-02T14:18:00.001+08:00

Two interesting articles about primates for today:

LA visual artist Rachel Mayeri introduces "apehouse flick" - films that both humans and chimpanzees can enjoy.

Ingrid Philippens of the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, conditions marmoset monkeys to meditate by offering them marshmallows once they gain certain frequency range in brain activity.

Photo a screen capture of Guardian website.

DiGRA and trip to the Netherlands

2011-09-26T16:50:00.003+08:00

So much to write! And for the first time, something about my own research project.

During the last weeks plenty of progress has taken place in terms of our orangutan gameplay project. Perhaps most importantly, I gave a presentation at the DiGRA conference in the Netherlands. The abstract of my paper is available on the conference website. Positive feedback from game studies crowd is always important and I now feel confident about my research framework. Moreover, in the same session with me presented Kars Alfrink from Hubbub and Irene van Peer, who design games for pigs and humans - whan an exiting project and a great team with whom to exchange thoughts about animal gameplay! Very interesting and related was also a panel on 'puppy machines' by Patrick Crogan, Seth Giddings, Helen Kennedy (all three from my alma mater, UWE) and Bart Simon, who addressed virtual animals and life in games themselves. I believe good theoretical exchanges will be seen between their work and our project in the future.

During the same trip, I was delighted to be invited to talk about orangutans and designing games for them at the local Montessori school in Hilversum. The schoolchildren were very exticed and had plenty of good ideas for future game design. Such opportunities to discuss and share with children are truly priceless.

Two more exciting contacts were made in the Netherlands. I was happy to hear about the orangutan enrichment plans of an industrial design student Alexandra Vosmaer from Amsterdam and hope to collaborate with her in the future. Dr. Willie Smits, one of the great minds behind our orangutan gameplay project, also proposed I'd meet Yosuf Haydary who has studied orangutan facial recognition systems. Willie wrote about his work in his blog earlier this year. After meeting Yosuf in Rotterdam, I am looking forward to find out how we could integrate such systems into our project and to establish collaboration with Yosuf.

The kind of intelligence that we lack

2011-09-07T19:26:00.005+08:00

The ways in which animals in zoos of the East Coast of the United States prepared for hurricane Irene recently is a good example of the kind of intelligence we humans, of all animals, lack. Earlier, non-human animals are known to have escaped and prepared for tsunamis in Asia. This article is about animals facing a tsunami in Sri Lanka and India coastlines, while another article talks about animals preparing to one in Thailand.

iPads and orangutans

2011-08-23T20:31:00.001+08:00

Researchers at the Milwaukee County Zoo are researching the use of iPads with orangutans. It all started from an April Fool's Day joke by The Sun.

This looks like a great parallel project to that of ours in Asia! I will give a brief intro to our orangutan project soon.

Animal naming policies

2011-08-15T15:53:00.002+08:00

It is not just us humans who give names to our fellow species members. If we ever get to design MMORPGs for parrots, it's good to know they can individuate each other by name, too, as is summarised in an article by Geekosystem. Original research:

Berg, K.S., Delgado, S., Cortopassi, K.A., Beissinger, S.R. and Bradbury, J.W. Vertical transmission of learned signatures in a wild parrot. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences B, July 13 2011.

Rise of the (Altruistic) Planet of the Apes

2011-08-11T10:34:00.011+08:00

I have yet to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes and am really looking forward to find out how our closest relatives are portrayed in the film. It is telling that some of the world's leading great ape researchers have published an article on chimpanzee altruism now when the film is in cinemas. Daily Mail reports that the article suggests chimpanzees show empathy and that altruism isn't therefore a unique feature of humans.

Horner, V., Carter, J.D., Suchak, M. and de Waal, F.B.M. Spontaneous prosocial choice by chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011.

For cats only?

2011-08-04T11:30:00.006+08:00

Some months ago Friskies introduced a line of cats' games to feed the senses of their target audience instead of their furry tummies. But why discriminate based on one's species since it seems dogs can enjoy these fantastic games as well!

Primate paparazzi

2011-07-28T15:30:00.019+08:00

In the beginning of the month, a group of black macaques from Indonesia made it to the headlines after using camera equipment of a professional photographer in their natural habitat and taking beautiful portraits of themselves. Later, The Huffington Post discussed how the 'Cindy Sherman of the Monkey World' actually triggered a whole discussion of copyrights in terms of animal rights.

Given that the case returns to various age-old questions about art (What makes art? Does intention matter?), IP rights (Who owns the rights of socially/technologically generated photos?) and animals in relation to these (Can animals have IP rights? How do we have to think of the concept of an artist in order to see it as an useful concept for discussing animal art?), it is interesting to reflect on much earlier cases of primates and photography, too. In her book Primate visions, Donna Haraway, for example, refers to a gorilla named Koko, who learned to take photographs around 1978.

Haraway, D.J. Primate visions: Gender, race, and nature in the world of modern science. New York: Routledge, 1989.

Animal joy

2011-07-19T10:32:00.007+08:00

Couple of weeks ago in a university outdoor cafeteria I joined a group of friends who were concentrated on a little bird learning to fly. Not long after, a person from the next table picked up the bird and put it into a paper bag. He then went on placing the bag next to his tray and continued his tea. 'Parents' of the little one went crazy and kept circling the man making lots of noise. The little bird inside the paper bag made the bag sway. All this did not, however, seem to bother the man. Personally I was thinking through all the studies on animal 'intelligence' I had been reading during the same week.

After watching the misery of the birds for some time, perplexed, we decided to ask help from a security guard instead of confronting the person ourselves. The guard took the bird 'back' (well, of course it wasn't his property either!) from the guy and placed it in a little nest in a nearby potted plant. Apparently asking the guard was a good choice since he already knew where the bird lived.

After the bird was rescued, I imagined the beautiful singing of the birds as joyful or even thankful. Somewhat related, I read about an operation of saving a humpback whale today. Once a huge whale was released from a fishing net somewhere in California, it gave a hour-long 'dance' to its rescuers. The people enjoying the whale jumping considered it as an act of gratitude.

A group of scientists strictly against any kind of anthropomorphism, I'm sure, opposes such wording. The whale might have jumped just to clean itself after drifting for a long time. Perhaps it was simply enjoying itself? But why do some people think it would be too odd for an animal to thank the one who saves his or her life? One of the things I am interested in exploring is indeed when is it that anthropomorphism is acceptable and helpful and when it does more harm than good. Furthermore, is there really something play-like, as it seems to us humans, going on in the joy of these animals who have been rescued?

"Play me Nim"

2011-07-18T15:30:00.004+08:00

I have been studying animals, art and play for a while now and given that the topic is gaining popular interest, decided to put together this blog. I have invited two other game scholars who share my interest in non-human gameplay to contribute to this space with me - I hope they will have time to share their thoughts with us! In any case, I will start writing to this blog in the very near future. So excited about the whole new area of study!

Since my primary interest is in primates, I would like to start with a reference to a recent film Project Nim, which I consider as a suitable starting point for discussing animals, play and art from the point of view of what these close relatives of ours are actually able to do.