Although researchers have long thought that the primary function of play was for skill practice and training, this socializing and trust-building function seems more fundamental. As Stuart Brown observes, “Cats deprived of play-fighting can hunt just fine. What they can’t do—what they never learn to do—is to socialize successfully. Cats and other social mammals such as rats will, if seriously deprived of opportunities for play, have an inability to clearly delineate friend from foe, miscue on social signaling, and either act excessively aggressive or retreat and not engage in more normal
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