Research overview: the function and evolution of play in felids

Play is energetically costly and potentially risky, yet pervasive in young cats, prompting debate over its functions. This overview surveys the major hypotheses, including play as practice for predation and fighting, as a means of physical and neural development, as social-bonding behaviour, and as training for unexpected events, and weighs the evidence for each in felids. It discusses why object play resembles predation, why social play peaks early, and how play relates to later competence. It connects feline play to broader comparative theories of why animals play. The topic synthesises what play does for cats and why natural selection has favoured such conspicuous juvenile behaviour.