Posted on 05/02/2009 9:43:59 AM PDT by nickcarraway
They wouldn’t blow away the competition on ‘Dancing with the Stars’, but it turns out that some birds got rhythm.
After studying a cockatoo that grooves to the Backstreet Boys and about 1,000 YouTube videos, scientists say they’ve documented for the first time that some animals “dance” to a musical beat. The results support a theory for why the human brain is wired for dancing.
In lab studies of two parrots and close review of the YouTube videos, scientists looked for signs that animals were actually feeling the beat of music they heard. The verdict: Some parrots did, and maybe an occasional elephant. But experts found no evidence of that for dogs and cats, despite long exposure to people and music, nor for chimps, our closest living relatives.
Why? The truly boppin’ animals shared with people some ability to mimic sounds they hear, the researchers say. The brain circuitry for that ability lets people learn to talk, and evidently also to dance or tap their toes to music, suggests Aniruddh Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. He proposed the music connection in 2006. He also led a study of Snowball that was published online on Thursday by the journal Current Biology.
A video of Snowball bobbing his head and kicking to music has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube. Patel saw it after a colleague pointed it out.
Patel collaborated with Snowball’s owner in Indiana for a more formal test. Snowball’s movements followed the beat of his favorite Backstreet Boys song, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” even when researchers sped up the tune and slowed it down. Actually, Snowball drifted in and out of following the beat, just as a child does, Patel said. But statistical analysis of his head bobs showed they really were related to the tempo.
I had cockatiels that “banged their heads” to Nirvana. If I had a cockatoo that liked The Backstreet Boys, I’d hang my head in shame for having the CD necessary to learn that fact.
I have a Sun Conure that dances all the time. He won’t go to bed at night without being sung to so he can dance.
Snowball - Another One Bites The Dust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJOZp2ZftCw&feature=channel
I think this is a better copy of that video...
http://elcampeador.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/cockatoo-with-smooth-movescourtesy-a-good-friend/
bump for later read
BUMP
Rossini created an Italian waltz called ‘The Theiving Magpie’. Play that one real loud and observe what the birds do.
Snowball rawks but Frostie has soul... here’s one for you Blues Brothers fans out there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bt9xBuGWgw
Research: Birds can dance to music
SAN DIEGO, May 1 (UPI) — Two U.S. studies suggest parrots and other species of bird can keep rhythm with musical beats.
Dr. Aniruddh Patel, a researcher at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego and lead author of one of the studies, said he and his team performed experiments with a cockatoo that moves to music, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
“We’ve discovered a cockatoo named Snowball that dances to the beat of human music,” he said. “Using a controlled experiment, we’ve shown that if the music speeds up or slows down across a wide range, he adjusts the tempo of his dancing to stay synchronized to the beat.”
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/05/01/Research-Birds-can-dance-to-music/UPI-68951241210668/
I guess a cockatoo isn’t restricted to duets. /rimshot
Uh-oh, I’m almost afraid to click on that... ;’)
Seriously, it's an elephant keeping time to a big band jazz tune...."and a one, and a two..."
“Elephant Walk”?
I'm trying to discover the name of the tune. It does ring familiar.
Check it out, please, and let me know what you think.
Now I’m wondering about the title... “Elephant Walk” was also a movie... the song was (I think) by Henry Mancini, and I remember it well, you’d recognize it you heard it... maybe there’s a MIDI file...
Oh, it’s “Baby Elephant Walk”:
http://www.jacquedee63.com/babyelephantwalk.html
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