Difficult questions: In addition to humans, are there any animals that know how to exercise?

As a human being, what are you taught to do every morning to wake up? Do exercise!

Yes, exercise is a way to overcome the high mortality rate in our species, involving all kinds of diseases including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer .

We know that exercise will help you become healthier. But in fact, the morning exercise ritual seemed to be only human.

Animals, after all, may be similar to us. Do they need to exercise? Gizmodo has asked a number of animal behavior experts, and below is their answer to you:

There is evidence that exercise animals feel comfortable.

Lindsay Mehrkam

Associate Professor of Psychology at Monmouth University, an investigator for the Animal-Animal Health project

If we define exercise as participating in physical activities to improve fitness then the answer is " yes ", animals definitely have exercise. Some animals always have typical behaviors and behaviors that are considered exercise. They do so to prove their strength and reproductive potential to their partners.

The study also shows that some animals regulate their diet. In other words, not only do they know how to exercise, they also know how to diet.

But when exercising, do animals have other specific purposes? For example, do they practice chasing for situations that need to escape or practice to show off your body to your partner? It is difficult to answer.

But there is evidence that exercise animals feel comfortable. This is especially true for captive environments in the zoo. You often see animals in the zoo walking back and forth in their pens.

The more large wild space animals (such as tigers, bears and wolves), when trapped in a tight space, will travel more and more.

This helps them do two things, one is to relieve stress, boredom when imprisoned, and to make sure their bodies are still active. For these purposes, it is true that exercise animals are intentional rather than mere instincts.

Do you often see animals in the zoo walking back and forth in their pens?Are they exercising?

Sergio skin

Professor of Neuroscience at Lethbridge University

To answer the question, consider a mouse locked in a cage. It is provided with enough food and water, all available for it. The mouse can sit, eat or drink when he wants.

But if you put a wheel in the cage, the mouse will run relentlessly for hours. This suggests that mice need to maintain their physical and mental health through exercise.

In cages, when unable to achieve the same level of movement as the natural life outside, animals tend to exercise to compensate.

And even in nature, many animals can participate in activities that maintain their ability, such as practicing hunting skills or seeking food.

For example, long-tailed monkeys are often observed with the act of holding stones and knocking on the ground. They do this to practice for situations where it is necessary to break something to get food, such as separating hard seed pods.

In addition, the use of stones can also make monkeys reduce stress in some cases.

If you put a wheel in the cage, the mouse will run relentlessly for hours.

Daniel T. Blumstein

Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California

Many animals often have playful behaviors, and play is also a form of exercise that improves both muscle and spirit for them. If you've ever been to a park there are dogs, you know dogs play a lot.

So are other wildlife species. For predators, play provides essential practice lessons for hunting sessions. In contrast, prey playing is also a way to practice chase to escape those who hunt them.

James Hanken

Zoology Professor at Harvard University

The best example I know about this phenomenon is young birds and mammals. They do not seem to exercise to get in good shape, but they will practice to develop and cultivate complex skills that are meaningful to survive.

For example, flying birds. At first they were clumsy, but through each training session, the birds showed better skills until they were fluent.

The same is observed in animals that eat immature meat, such as young lions. Although they are raised and fed by their parents, the lions still need to practice hunting to prepare themselves for future independence.

Flying birds are just like young lions who must practice hunting.

Fred Harington

Behavioral ecologist at the University of St. Vincent

Natural selection has shaped the body, physiology and behavior of animals, even what they have to do in their lives including hunting, running away, competing for partners and protecting young animals. .

A wolf may have to move from 10-20 km a day to find food and chase after its prey. With this level of activity, they are tired enough to not need to exercise to lose weight or do anything.

But that does not mean that wolves never practice. When wolves play, they perform stalking movements, ambush, chase, grab and wrestle and wrestle. In a certain sense, play can be counted as training to improve combat and hunting skills.

Meredith Lutz

Bachelor of Animal Behavior at University of California

During the study of lemurs in the natural environment, I have never seen any children exercise like humans. Every day, these wild animals spend most of their time trying to find enough food and avoid being eaten by predators. So, they don't have much time to exercise like humans.

However, lemurs still have activities that train their physical, mental and emotional skills through play. The hypothesis is that play allows them to gain skills to cope with unexpected situations, in addition to other situations such as chasing a prey, fighting them or another fellow animal.

We found consistent support for this hypothesis in many primates from around the world, including capuchin monkeys, hamadryas and sifaka lemurs. While most play activities were observed in young animals, we still saw many sifaka continuing to play when they were grown up.

As a child, many of their games involve running and moving around. These may be activities that include multiple fitness movements. In adult life, almost all lemur games will be social.

Refer to Gizmodo