The Michael Jordan of Otters

Alright i just saw this video on YouTube...



Firstly, i think it is amazing and cute as hell.

Then i got thinking, where does it learn to do this? What suddenly flicks in a creatures mind that it can control it the way it does? I know they are seen as 'playful' but to actually find complete interest in the object, just doesn't seem... "animal like" and instincts to me.

The alien parasites getting into us... have slipped into the water supply and gotten into Otters.

zomygod alien otters! weez all gunna die!

In all honesty, I don't see anything that unusual in the otter's behavior. Dogs and cats play like that, though they don't have the otters' manipulation capabilities with their front paws.

It was especially clear to me that it was natural behavior because the otter kept going onto its back and playing with the ball on its chest, which is modified feeding behavior -- otters will hold shellfish on their bellies while they float on their backs and smash them with rocks.

Well fed mammals and birds play. It's not an uncommon phenomenon at all.

it wasn't really the act that i was interested in, it was more the thought process of the animal.

It seems to be a fascination of the object more than actually being playful with it, if you can kind of understand what i mean.

Other than that, i also just wanted to show a cute video lol...

Hey, don't get me wrong, I thought it was pretty cute, too!

There's a thread going about how animals think here.

I posted a few links about the current research.

Originally posted by SilentShadow
it wasn't really the act that i was interested in, it was more the thought process of the animal.

It seems to be a fascination of the object more than actually being playful with it, if you can kind of understand what i mean.

Other than that, i also just wanted to show a cute video lol...

More like the Harlem Globetr-otter OMG I am so punny!!!!one!

Ahem.

Animals don't work on pure instinct. It's a sort of elitist misperception humans have that only we are capable of rational (or for that matter, irrational) behavior, that all the other critters on earth are just automatons following set programming - instinct.

This otter is playing with a ball for exactly the same reason you or I would. It entertains him. The activity causes pleasure, which is of course, enjoyable. So, just like a human, it'll play with that ball until something else comes to mind.

That was pretty cute, it looked like it was having some fun with that little ball.