General Question

AstroChuck's avatar

Is yawning exclusive to mammals?

Asked by AstroChuck (37666points) January 27th, 2010 from iPhone

Do birds, reptiles, fish, etc. ever yawn? I’ve seen my cats and my dog yawn all the time but I’ve never seen my parrot do it.

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20 Answers

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

I’ve seen your parrot doing other things…
http://www.anapsid.org/sneeze.html

AstroChuck's avatar

Funny. I handle my bird all the time (no, that’s not a euphemism) and I’ve never seen him do it.

syz's avatar

My parrots definitely yawn (I can induce a yawn by petting them around their ear hole). My fish do something that looks like yawning…..if I had to guess, I’d call it a yawn.

grumpyfish's avatar

@AstroChuck It’s possible that your, uh, “bird” might not yawn. It seems to be very common amongst mammals, but differently pronounced in birds and fish.

Ivy's avatar

I have budgies and a cockatiel and have never seen anything that resembled a yawn. But as you pointed out, birds aren’t mammals. My dogs yawn loudly and yawns are contagious. We have a yawn festival morning and night:). I’ll trust your experience with reptiles as I don’t have any. I respect their right to be ~ away from me!

Dog's avatar

I had Koi and I could swear they would yawn once in a while.

AstroChuck's avatar

@Dracool- I have no experience with mammals either. I especially dislike snakes.

ccrow's avatar

My parrot yawns. Case closed. :-)

GoldieAV16's avatar

My cockatoo can be induced to yawn by scratching near her earhole, as @syz said.

ModernEpicurian's avatar

My pet amoeba yawns.

susanc's avatar

I think that little Geico guy yawns.

mammal's avatar

also, why is yawning spontaneously contagious?

janbb's avatar

@Dog Would that be a coy yawn?

AstroChuck's avatar

@Dracool- I need to edit that. I meant I don’t have experience with reptiles either. I have plenty of experience having mammal pets.
Damn. I’ve been screwing up a lot more lately.

janbb's avatar

@AstroChuck You’ve never recovered since the “man ‘n cheese” episode!

AstroChuck's avatar

@janbb- You may be onto something.

Dr_Lawrence's avatar

Yawning occurs in reptiles, sharks and reptiles as well as mammals.

AstroChuck's avatar

What about in the world of insects and spiders?

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