We humans love to prank each other – playing tricks or practical jokes on friends and family that make us laugh and them look a bit silly.
It's mostly harmless pretence – mischievous but be fun. But what about other animals? In old stories such as Aesop's Fables, foxes are master trickers but do animals play jokes on each other for their own amusement in real life?
While foxes are a byword for cleverness, the best place to start looking for pranks is with our closest relatives, the great apes. A recent study of bonobos, orangutans and gorillas at San Diego Zoo in California as well as chimpanzees in Leipzig Zoo in Germany, found that the animals frequently teased and joked with each other
Reporting in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences in 2024, the researchers watched 75 hours of video footage that showed many instances of individuals hair-pulling, tickling, nudging and body slamming other members of their group as well as waving objects repeatedly in front of their faces.
The scientists deduced that all of this was about attention seeking – the animals doing the teasing were hoping to get a reaction from neighbours. The behaviour could not be described as a sophisticated prank but it certainly occurred when the animals were relaxed so suggests it is a form of play that may be related to forming social hierarchies within the group.
Mischief is often attributed to many species. For instance, a dog that is forbidden to sit on a sofa might sneak on when its owner is out of the room, only to jump off the moment the owner returns – with what we think is a guilty expression.
Kittens sneak up behind each other or their mother to paw a tail and then run away, playing tag, though this is generally thought to help develop their hunting skills. Crows frequently tap at windows with their beaks, almost as if they are trying to communicate with or irritate us. But they are actually getting agitated at their reflections, believing they are seeing a rival crow that needs to be driven off.
And what about those cunning foxes? Sometimes a fox can get into a chicken run and kill every hen. For the human owners it can be devastating and feel like a calculated act of 'evil', of mindless slaughter.
But for the fox, it's a strategy. A glut of prey is a rare thing so it will kill all the chickens and, if lucky, carry them off to bury them. They can then be eaten at leisure over the next few weeks – a luxury for a carnivore. However, as the killing is usually discovered quickly, the fox rarely gets a chance to return to finish the job.
While it is tempting to attribute human emotions and motivations to animals' behaviour, with all these examples it can blind us to what is actually going on.
Some animals actively use trickery to catch prey or escape being caught by predators and this can be very sophisticated. Green herons drop bait onto the water – insects, feathers or bread – to tempt fish near enough to be snapped up.
The lapwing pretends to have a broken wing and 'limps' across a field in order to attract predators, such as foxes, away from its nest on the ground. Once it and the predator are a safe distance from the nest, it miraculously recovers and flies off – a very neat distraction. The peacock butterfly has owl-like 'eye' patterns on its wings that it can suddenly deploy to startle predators, who might then think twice about eating it.
Meanwhile, a host of different animals, from tigers to moths, use camouflage to hide themselves within their environments to avoid being seen.
Again, it's important to remember that this sleight of hand (or fur or feathers) is purely for survival – and certainly no joke.
Why do humans like to play pranks
So why do we prank each other? Is it purely for fun or is there an evolutionary reason underlying our mischief? Psychologists have shown that humour is good for us – it bonds us, helps release tension and induce relaxation.
Pranking, though often very humorous, is slightly different in that one person or party is the 'victim' of the joke. In light-hearted situations with close friends and family who can take a joke, this generally provides fun and strengthens friendship. But when the 'victim' of a practical joke is placed in a humiliating or dangerous position, the prank can act as form of social dominance and lead to psychological and even physical distress. So it pays to deploy pranks wisely.
