Dancing animals
April 30, 2009If you’re one of the more than 2 million people who have seen this video, you wondered whether birds would or even could dance to music. You probably also wondered why they picked a Backstreet Boys song, but that’s irrelevant.
It turns out that Snowball probably was dancing – scientists say that certain animals, including birds and elephants – are hard-wired for dancing just like people:
“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… Why? The truly boppin’ animals shared with people some ability to mimic sounds they hear, the researchers say. (Even elephants can do that). The brain circuitry for that ability lets people learn to talk, and evidently also to dance or tap their toes to music…”
Unfortunately, the study found that cats and dogs do not have the same brain hardware, so trying to get them to dance is likely a losing battle (especially with each other). That means that, for now, we’ll just have to live with teaching them to skateboard or giving them beer.
