Birds know to dance like people

Until now, the scientific world said that only people know how to dance. But a recent study proved that parrots also shook their heads, stamped their feet, moved and turned their bodies to the music.

Snowball parrot stomped on the music on the YouTube page.Photo: Daily Mail.

Millions of people have watched videos of two cockatoos dancing to the music on the YouTube page posted by researchers from the American Institute of Neuroscience. In just a short time the two parrots named Alex and Snowball became famous.

Adena Schachner, a student at Harvard University and some colleagues decided to explore the bird's dancing ability by following two parrots. They found that they stamped their feet to the rhythm of the music. When the tempo of the music (the number of beats per minute) rises or falls, the number of stomping footprints in a minute increases or decreases accordingly.

"We were really surprised by their ability to recognize the pace of music , " Schachner said. This finding can help us understand the process by which humans make simple jumps into complex dances like waltz or chachacha.

Meanwhile, dancing is still considered the 'monopoly' behavior of humans because the scientific community has not found any convincing evidence that animals with our relatives like chimpanzees, gibbons, monkeys can stomp or shake to music. Dogs, cats, pigs, chickens and many other pets are also often 'enjoying' music because they live close to people, but there is no evidence that they know how to dance.

'We analyzed the movements of two parrots Alex, Snowball and noticed that the footsteps, shaking their heads or turning their bodies were done according to the melody of the song. The two birds did not move arbitrarily. This is evidence that they are able to synchronize the movement of the body with the melody of the music, something that humans have never observed in other animals, " Schachner added.

According to the research team, parrots can dance because they also have the ability to mimic sounds like humans. Recently, some zoologists believe that animals capable of mimicking sounds are also able to perform movements according to music. Both of these skills are controlled by the same mechanism in the brain. In order to imitate the sound and dance, we need to listen to a sound, while watching both types of results (the sound we create and manipulate footsteps) and sound into the ears.

To test the correctness of the hypothesis, Schachner and colleagues searched for video data about animal mimic behavior on YouTube. Some videos are fake, meaning people give animals dancing and insert music into the movie so that the melody matches their movements. After eliminating the fake videos, the team found 14 species of parrots and an elephant that can mimic the sound and maintain the rhythm of the music melody.

'The data we have showed that it is very possible for humans to dance before imitating the sound. At first some mechanisms in the brain help us dance, then allow us to imitate the sound , 'Schachner commented.