Otters 'juggle' rocks and we don't know why:
A lovely, intuitive idea about why otters juggle rocks — that it helps them practice survival skills — might not be correct, new tests show.
The term "juggling" is itself overenthusiastic. Otters don't keep stones flying around in some tall, aerial circle. Instead, the animals shuffle rocks back and forth quickly between their front paws. "It's very close to the body," says animal behaviorist Mari-Lisa Allison, who studied the behavior as a graduate student at the University of Exeter in England.
Such deft fiddling looks as if it might make a great example of how animal play could serve as practice for real-life challenges. In the wild, small-clawed otters need paw dexterity to tweak shreds of seafood out of crustacean or mollusk shells. And yet, three kinds of tests found no evidence that juggling builds otters' food-picking skills[0], Allison and her colleagues report May 6 in Royal Society Open Science.
[0I'm getting a 500 Internal Server Error on this link —chromas]
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday May 10 2020, @09:44AM
They're otters. They've weaponized cuteness. This is just a small part of that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Sunday May 10 2020, @09:58AM
N/a.
(Anthropomorphism is one of my favorite hobbies.)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Hartree on Sunday May 10 2020, @11:28AM (5 children)
Why do otters juggle rocks?
Cause it's hard for them to buy juggling balls or clubs.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday May 10 2020, @03:39PM (2 children)
And chainsaws chase away their audience?
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday May 11 2020, @02:26AM (1 child)
Yeah, I don't think I'd get anywhere near a chainsaw juggling otter.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday May 11 2020, @03:56AM
Just don't fu@% with their oysters and you'll be fine...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @03:55PM
And next up in our nature series, following Juggling Otters, we have Jiggling Titties [scrapsfromtheloft.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @05:54PM
They're Juggalos?
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Sunday May 10 2020, @01:58PM
That part of their belly is used to hammer open their food. Maybe they're just keeping it up to strength and flexibility.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Sunday May 10 2020, @03:54PM (3 children)
Wild idea, but maybe on of the wild species best known for engaging in seemingly frivolous play of all types, is really just engaging in frivolous play? Nobody looks at all the things humans do for fun and tries to claim they somehow promote survival skills (Drinking beer and watching Nascar... promotes fat storage for winter?). As far as we have evidence, the only thing that really separates us from other animals is our extreme intelligence - our emotional capacity and base motivations appear to be shared by virtually all of our mammalian cousins, and to a large degree even amongst birds, reptiles, etc.
Once our survival needs (real and imagined) are taken care of we mostly pass the time in leisure and play. And otters are pretty well positioned to have a lot of leisure time - predators are relatively sparse and easily dodged in their preferred habitat, and food is plentiful and can't be effectively stockpiled even if they were inclined to do so. They're intelligent, energetic animals that typically only have to hunt for 3 to 5 hours a day. So long as situations aren't getting bad enough to promote migration, they're positioned to have lots of leisure time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @05:22PM
i watched the video in the article but i would like to see what happens in the wild. do other otters come and play with the otter that does this right afterwards or it's always a solo act. some possible reasons: it;'s bored and occupying it;'s time. it;s thinking about something. in the video, maybe getting the fuck out of the cage. maybe it's trying to entice another otter or in the video's case the human to play? you're right though. scientists seem to want to ignore the smart reasons and focus on instinctual level stuff only., like they are too dumb to do things for smart reasons.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Monday May 11 2020, @02:45AM (1 child)
Lots of animals do useless repetitive activities for the apparent purpose of amusing themselves... no different from humans, really.
Knew a horse that would flip a feed bucket up over its head and run pell-mell around the pasture... this was its everyday idea of 'fun'. Completely useless activity that served to occupy its spare time (and terrify any watching humans).
I've seen puppies play by "herding" bugs (bounce at the bugs to make them run the other way, repeatedly).
The list is endless.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @03:53PM
*scrolls down SN site*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @10:44PM (1 child)
Thank goodness no one was ever insane enough to attempt to install linux [spiceworks.com] on a dead otter. The HORROR! The mind-numbing, JUGGLING horror! We must make horror, shear moral terror, our fiend, for if it is not, it is a formidable enemy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @01:11AM
We installed it on the otter one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @01:52AM