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Bopping parrot proves birds can boogie
A parrot which bobs and struts to the Backstreet Boys has helped convince scientists that birds can dance.
Snowball the sulphur-crested cockatoo cannot resist moving to a good tune.
But what surprised US researchers was his ability to keep in step with the beat.
In fact his sense of rhythm puts many a human "dancing dad" to shame.
A YouTube movie of Snowball shows him bobbing his head up and down and lifting and lowering his feet in perfect time.
One of his favourite dance songs is "Everybody" by American boy band the Backstreet Boys.
And Snowball is not alone. Studies of more than 1,000 YouTube animal videos revealed 14 different species of parrot that could dance, as well as movies of dancing elephants.
One African grey parrot called Alex was seen nodding to the beat like a rapper.
Dr Aniruddh Patel, from The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, California, who led one of two studies, reported today in the journal Current Biology, said: "We've discovered a cockatoo that dances to the beat of human music.
"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 synchronised to the beat."
Fellow researcher Adena Schachner, from Harvard University in Boston, who led the other study, said: "For a long time, people have thought that the ability to move to a beat was unique to humans.
"After all, there is no convincing evidence that our closest relatives, chimpanzees and other apes, can keep a beat, and there is similarly no evidence that our pet dogs and cats can line up their actions with a musical beat, in spite of extensive experience with humans. In this work, however, we found that entrainment (to music) is not uniquely human; we find strong evidence for it in birds, specifically in parrots."
Both parrots and elephants are known to mimic sounds, a trait they share with humans.
The ability is less well known in elephants than in birds, but there have been cases of elephants mimicking human voices and even the rumble of passing lorries.
The scientists believe the link between dancing skill and vocal mimicry is no accident.
"Our data suggests that some of the brain mechanisms needed for human dance originally evolved to allow us to imitate sound," said Ms Schachner. "In both vocal mimicry and entrainment, you're taking in auditory input, and constantly monitoring not only your output but also the sound input. This allows you to fix your output in real time, to better resemble or line up with what you hear.
"For example, if you are tapping to a beat, you constantly monitor the sound and your taps, so that if you become misaligned with the beat, you immediately change your timing.
"If you are imitating a sound, you constantly monitor your memory of the sound you are trying to imitate, as well as the sound you are producing, so if you notice a difference, you can change your vocalisation. So it seems plausible that vocal mimicry and keeping a beat might rely on some of the same mechanisms."
As part of her research Ms Schachner studied YouTube "dancing" videos of both vocal-mimicking animals such as parrots, and non-mimics such as dogs and cats.
She analysed the movies frame by frame, comparing the speed of animal movements with the speed of the music and alignment with individual beats.
Potentially "fake" videos, for instance where music appeared to have been added to match an animal's movement or an animal was following a visual cue, were omitted.
Only vocal mimics showed any real evidence of being able to synchronise themselves with a musical beat.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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