Most animals are physically active. They fly, walk, swim and slither to discover food, flee predators and find mates, but exercise is more than this. It’s any form of voluntary physical activity that goes beyond this baseline level. Often, there’s a motivational component. Humans, for example, exercise to prepare for feats of endurance, stave off disease or impress a partner. Some even say they enjoy it.
With non-human animals, it’s harder to ascribe intent, making the question of ‘do animals exercise?’ a tricky area of research. It’s difficult to know whether a behaviour is voluntary or something that occurs as a necessary part of survival.
Take play. Wolf cubs wrestle, chase and ambush their littermates, which leads to better hunting and fighting skills. But is it exercise? The jury is…
