Snowball the dancing cockatoo can break down 14 dance moves



[ad_1]

The birds just want to have fun! Snowball the Cockatoos, which gained its notoriety on the Internet in 2007 by dancing to the Backstreet Boys' Everyone (Backstreet's Back), was shaking a feather from the tail for science. The team of researchers, led by psychologist R. Joanne Jao Keehn, sought to understand why he could move up a gear while other primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees, the closest relatives of humans, can not.

Snowball displays an impressive range of 14 different dance moves, plus two composite movements. Dancing on classics of the 80s Another one who bites the dust and Girls just want S & # 39; funThe Sulfur-crested Cockatoo rebounded, lifted its foot, posed with the ridge raised, made an excellent strike at the head and even showed a gesture that the researchers call voguing.

"What interests us most is the great diversity of his movements on music," said Professor Aniruddh Patel.

The team says that Snowball's ability to offer new moves, as well as his ability to improvise a different dance every time he hears a song, is flexible and creative.

Patel's 2009 research has given Snowball the honor of being named the first nonhuman animal to conclusively demonstrate that it can dance to the beat of music.

So why can humans and cockatoos do boogie when primates can not even stomp on the beat? It comes down to the fact that we share a number of features with birds, which helps to create a fondness for music, says the team.

For us, dancing is a social activity and we are more likely to dance in groups than alone. Then the researchers want to know if Snowball is the same.

Learn more about animals and music:


Follow Science Focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard

[ad_2]

Source link