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Can You Catch a Yawn from a Chimpanzee?

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Make sure you don’t scroll down to the photos below unless you have a pillow and a blanket ready for a nap. These images will make you sleeepppy.

A few years ago, a bunch of researchers sat next to 33 chimpanzees and started yawning a lot. Guess what the chimpanzees did? They yawned back! They helped prove what we’ve all known for a long time: yawning is contagious!

The researchers made a lot of chimps look pretty sleepy, but no word yet if there was an increase in nap time for both researchers and chimpanzees.

yawning chimpanzee

If we can make chimpanzees yawn, can animals make us yawn? Scroll through these pictures and let us know if feel a yawn coming on!

fox yawning
Fox. Photo credit: Tambako Jaguar
japanese snow monkey yawning
Japanese snow monkey
leopard yawn
leopard yawn. Flickr user Knar Bedian
lion yawning
lion yawning
wolf yawning
Wolf. Photo credit: Flick user breenzanemom
yawing baby monkey
Baby monkey
yawning polar bear
Polar bear
yawning red panda
Red panda. Photo credit: Flickr User, hizonic

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