COPYCATS

Animals likely yawn for different purposes. One hypothesis is that yawning increases blood flow to the brain. That could boost alertness when an animal is sleepy. Another hypothesis is that yawning might help the big cats communicate. Palagi decided to create an experiment to find out if lions yawn to communicate with each other.

Palagi’s team recorded videos of two groups of lions in the Makalali Reserve in South Africa. Over four months, the researchers collected footage of 19 lions. The team made careful observations about what they saw.

They analyzed the videos frame by frame and saw 252 yawns. They watched to see if the yawns happened while the lions were relaxing, eating, or moving. They noted when a lion yawned and any behaviors happening at the same time.

The team found that if a lion saw another lion yawn, it was 139 times more likely to yawn compared with a lion that hadn’t seen the yawn.

Also, lions that caught a yawn from another lion were 11 times more likely to copy that lion’s movements than a lion that didn’t catch the yawn.

Let’s say lion A yawns, and lion B catches that yawn. If lion A then gets up and walks around, lion B is more likely to get up and walk around soon after.

Palagi and her team concluded that yawning is contagious. It also seems to help lions communicate. The behavior might help lions work together. Yawning may also help lions hunt together or cooperate while raising cubs.

Palagi says these conclusions are important when thinking about yawning in all animals. “A better understanding of yawning in lions brings us one step closer to understanding what yawning means for all of us,” she says.