Lucy HicksEven before they learn to talk, human infants and toddlers know how to joke: They play games such as peek-a-boo and take whatever unexpected actions get a rise from adults.
Now, it appears that nonhuman apes—like gorillas and orangutans—engage in similar behaviors, according to a paper published last week in Biology Letters.Science chatted with co-author Erica Cartmill, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, about what these “playful teasing” behaviors look like in our evolutionary cousins.This interview has been edited for clarity and length.Q: How did you get interested in this topic?A: I was studying how orangutans communicated with one another [in captivity], and I noticed several interactions where.