You may recognize the subject line as a jocularity by Ed Zern attributed to fish. Which brings up the subject – Do animals (other than pets, which people often anthropomorphisize) have a sense of humor?
I believe some do. I know a young mink who entered a pool, caught the trout I was casting to, then turned around and winked at me. 
Fish laugh at me all the time
I get the meanest stares from Herons. They are very serious about their fishing. Not much humor in their bones.
You would be serious about fishing also if your life depended on it.
I was salmon fishing with my dad off the north end of Lopez Island when a pod of Orca started surfacing around our boat. Some would come right up to the side of our 18 foot runabout and roll on thier sides, look us right in the eye as if to ask “Catching anything?”. Well, hell no we aren’t catching anything. Every salmon within a mile of us took off as soon as you guys showed up.
Kerry: I wouldn;t say that to their face, though. They can get kinda grumpy 
honestly, though, you’ve hit on a pretty highly contested topic. I think it’s become fairly well accepted that some of the more advanced mammals do have a capacity for what we would call “play.” Particularly, I’m thinking the Great Apes, Dolphins and cetaceans and elephants. However, whether they are consciously trying to find mental stimulation the way we do when we tell or hear a joke, or whether this is an instinctual form of bonding or sharpening of life skills disguised as play, there isn’t really anyway to tell. Really it’s up to a best guess made after countless hours of observation.
Fish have to have a sense of humor. After all, they eat the flies I tie :o
Reed, it is so nice to see you posting here again.
Love the way your mind works. :lol:
I no longer live in NH but having been born and raised in the Mt. Washington Valley area I observed what I would not call a since of humor but maybe a primitive evolved intelligence in a pickerel. I was fishing along the edge of a back woods pond when I noticed a tree stump out from the bank about 3 feet. This stump stuck out of the water perhaps 2 inches, and on this stump laid a single walnut. Along the edge of the bank a small squirrel was going back and forth trying to decide how to get to the stump and the walnut. It finally just jumped for all it?s worth and landed on the stump and picked up the nut. At the same time this very large pickerel came out of the water in a flash and grabbed the squirrel, nut and all, and back into the pond it went. I just stood there for a couple of minutes, with my mouth hanging open, trying to believe what I just witnessed. I was just turning to leave when I noticed the pickerel slowly coming out of the water with the walnut in its mouth and gently put it back on the stump.
Cool blog, Reed.
Hey rst,
Do you really expect me to beileve THAT???
:shock: 
But, anyway, GREAT story.
Mark
PS: Reed, I second the “cool blog”
LoL!
I too believe that fish have a sense of humour (or pity) towards us anglers.
We wonder why, after flogging a pool for hours, that suddenly, a salmon will take a fly.
imho ;), as the salmon know it’s a C&R river, they draw straws and the loser has to take the fly. They have this sort of back room boys club meeting and figure that if ONE of them takes the fly, the angler will be contented, do a release and go home, leaving the salmon alone for a few hours
(and don’t get me started on the way the mind of my Dawg works … I promised JC I wouldn’t do anymore articles on that)
Rats laugh when they play. Of course they don’t laugh like us, but they make a sound only when they play that we can’t hear. They also make this sound when tickeled. All things considered though, rats are some of the smarter critters out there, so all animals? I’d sure like to think so; not sure what I’d do without my sense of humor.
Mark – of course I expect you to believe that “story” after all I am a fly fisherman. :lol: