Oct. 7, 2003 — The special sounds and gestures made by infant bonobos also known as pygmy chimpanzees when they are tickled suggest that the origins of laughter may pre-date human evolution, according to a new report.

A study of a young bonobo in a German zoo found that when it was tickled it combined vocalizations and facial gestures much like those made by human infants, said the report in the BioMednet science news service.

The finding suggests that the rules for how emotion is encoded behaviorally were laid down in the common ancestor humans shared with other great apes, Elke Zimmermann of the Institute of Zoology at the Tieraerztliche Hochschule, in Hanover, told a recent conference of the German Primate Society.

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So monkeys like being tickled, I think I'm gonna have to take a walk to the zoo, and do a little experiment of my own.