WATCH: Wild Moose Plays Soccer
A moose wanders on to a soccer field... That sounds like a joke, doesn't it?
Well - it happened. And strangely enough, the moose knew just what to do with the ball. He even kicked it toward the cheering humans at the goal posts.
It happened in Homer, Alaska. Had the moose seen humans kicking the ball around and decided to mimic it? Is it just natural that all living creatures on earth know what to do with a ball?
Honestly we can kick this question around all day, (pun intended) but we will never know because we can't ask the moose where he learned to do this.
Your dog knows how to play with a ball but you taught him how to do it. Human children know how to play with a ball but they were also taught.
So the question is, if we just left a creature, of any kind, alone with a ball, would that creature eventually figure out a way to play with it?
Maybe the answer is that if you leave any creature alone with a ball long enough eventually they will get bored enough to start kicking it around.
Toss a ball to any animal in a zoo and it won't take long before it begins to play with it.
So what if we add more than one moose? Let's say a second and then a third walk out on to the field. Then more. Would we eventually have a game? Would they start taking sides and forming teams?
I'm thinking we need to do some experimenting.