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Adult lemurs appear to play as a way of breaking the ice with males not a part of the established social group, according to a recent study published in PLoS ONE. Observing wild populations of lemurs, sociobiologist Elisabetta Palagi of the University of Pisa in Italy and her colleagues found that males tended to play more frequently with outgroup males than with resident males. Furthermore, while aggression levels were initially higher towards strangers, they dropped to the level of resident-resident interactions after just one play session.

These results suggest yet another possible function for play — reducing xenophobia — and lend more support to the idea that the curious behavior may not be limited to juveniles. For a more in depth discussion of play behavior, see this month’s feature Recess, which outlines the existing hypotheses for why play might have evolved, and examines animals other than mammals that also show signs of playfulness.

–Jef Akst, Associate Editor, The Scientist