Re: why do animals yawn?

In humans, yawning is a natural response to the body not getting 
enough oxygen.  When the body realizes it is not getting enough 
oxygen, it will force a yawn to make you breathe deeply and get more 
air into the lungs.

It would seem obvious that the same reason would apply to animals 
although there have been studies that suggest that animals yawn to 
clear the air from their inner ear passages much the same way we yawn 
on an airplane to make our "ears pop."

- Joe