Für uns ist es selbstverständlich: Wir jassen, pokern, gamen, gehen in den Fussballverein oder den Volley-Club. Spiel ist ein elementarer Bestandteil unseres Lebens. Und nur natürlich scheint es, dass auch Tiere spielen. Aber: Für die Wissenschaft ist Spiel bei Tieren gar nicht so einfach. Warum spielen Tiere? Was ist sein Sinn und Zweck? Wird da für den "Ernst des Lebens" trainiert oder nicht? Und wie passt Spielverhalten überhaupt in die "Optimal Foraging Theory"? Diesen Fragen und mehr gehe ich in dieser Folge von Rund um Hund auf den Grund! TREUHUND TAGE Mehr auf www.treuhund.ch/tage QUELLEN Achterberg, E. J., et al. "Contrasting roles of dopamine and noradrenaline in the motivational properties of social play behavior in rats." Neuropsychopharmacology 41.3 (2016): 858-868. Ahloy-Dallaire, Jamie, Julia Espinosa, and Georgia Mason. "Play and optimal welfare: Does play indicate the presence of positive affective states?." Behavioural processes 156 (2018): 3-15. Berghänel, Andreas, Oliver Schülke, and Julia Ostner. "Locomotor play drives motor skill acquisition at the expense of growth: A life history trade-off." Science advances 1.7 (2015): e1500451. Bijlsma, Ate, et al. "Social play behavior is critical for the development of prefrontal inhibitory synapses and cognitive flexibility in rats." Journal of Neuroscience 42.46 (2022): 8716-8728. Burghardt, Gordon M. "A brief glimpse at the long evolutionary history of play." Animal behavior and cognition 1.2 (2014): 90-98. Byers, John A., and Curt Walker. "Refining the motor training hypothesis for the evolution of play." The American Naturalist 146.1 (1995): 25-40. Calcagnetti, Daniel J., and Martin D. Schechter. "Place conditioning reveals the rewarding aspect of social interaction in juvenile rats." Physiology & behavior 51.4 (1992): 667-672. Graham, Kerrie Lewis, and Gordon M. Burghardt. "Current perspectives on the biological study of play: signs of progress." The Quarterly review of biology 85.4 (2010): 393-418. Held, Suzanne DE, and Marek Špinka. "Animal play and animal welfare." Animal behaviour 81.5 (2011): 891-899. Marks, Karen A., et al. "Play behavior and responses to novel situations in juvenile ground squirrels." Journal of Mammalogy 98.4 (2017): 1202-1210. Marquardt, Ashley E., et al. "Social play experience in juvenile rats is indispensable for appropriate socio-sexual behavior in adulthood in males but not females." Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16 (2023): 1076765. Nunes, Scott, et al. "Functions and consequences of play behaviour in juvenile Belding's ground squirrels." Animal Behaviour 68.1 (2004): 27-37. Pellis, Sergio M., et al. "Play fighting and the development of the social brain: The rat’s tale." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 145 (2023): 105037. Sharpe, Lynda L. "Play fighting does not affect subsequent fighting success in wild meerkats." Animal Behaviour 69.5 (2005): 1023-1029. Spinka, Marek, Ruth C. Newberry, and Marc Bekoff. "Mammalian play: training for the unexpected." The Quarterly review of biology 76.2 (2001): 141-168. St John Wallis, Amelia, et al. "Pain and pessimism affect calves' play behaviours post-disbudding." Discover Animals 2.1 (2025): 50. Trezza, Viviana, Ruth Damsteegt, and Louk JMJ Vanderschuren. "Conditioned place preference induced by social play behavior: parametrics, extinction, reinstatement and disruption by methylphenidate." European Neuropsychopharmacology 19.9 (2009): 659-669.