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Poems and Thoughts by Frank Maurer

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Is Juvenile Play Useful? opus 179

27 August 2023 1215 Hours Behavior, Zoology
The pandemic has sadly shown us the result, when human children are isolated--
Undeveloped social skills, lesser science and math abilities, and often depression.
But what occurs with social play in juvenile Belding's ground squirrels? *
Those juveniles engaging in more social play,
Had a greater increase in caution when responding to a potential threat,
Demonstrating, as with our human children,
The benefits of 'play' which seems in the squirrels,
To promote refinement along the caution-boldness continuum.

When one investigates, the result helps depict
So much similarity with all us mammals!

* Urocitellus beldingi