• Question: can all animals smile?

    Asked by 09lomash to Laura, Nicola, Norman, Sandra, Thanasis on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Laura Soul

      Laura Soul answered on 14 Mar 2013:


      Some scientists think that some animals (like cats and dogs) can smile, they certainly have the facial muscles that allow them too, and the scientists think that they have the emotions like happiness that would make them use a smile. There are some animals that can’t though! Like birds, their beaks get in the way, and all insects and things are animals too and they don’t have the right sort of mouths for smiling. Fish have mouths but not the muscles or emotions to smile.

      There are lots of sea animals that don’t even really have what you would probably call a mouth, they just sort of have a hole, like sea urchins or bivalves (these are the animals that live in the shells you normally find on the beach).

    • Photo: Nicola Wardrop

      Nicola Wardrop answered on 14 Mar 2013:


      I’ve never really thought about that before, but I am sure sometimes animals are smiling at me!!

      But some animals look like they are smiling when they are actually unhappy – for example, monkeys smile when they are scared, so it’s not really a smile at all for them.

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