Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Survival Needs of Animals 
Name: Tobin
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Are all activities of an animal justified by a need for survival or are there activities that dosen't fall under this category.


Replies:
An interesting question, which I don't think has been resolved. There are activities of many species that can loosely be described as "play," but most of those, and maybe all, can be shown to have at least an indirect survival value. There are many things about animal behavior we do not yet understand.

J. Elliott

This is a tough one.

I would say that survival, including reproduction, includes just about everything. Note that survival of a species could include such 'virtual' things as "comfort" or "security" or "happiness" or "contentment" so that while an action might not directly appear to contribute to an animal's survival or reproduction ability, it does contribute to a quality of life consideration.

Thanks for using NEWTON!

Richard R. Rupnik


Click here to return to the Biology Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory