Parrots Can Dance 104
juuri sends in an NPR article about the consensus created among scientists that some birds actually dance to music. "The results of this study are reported in the journal Current Biology, along with another scientific paper inspired by YouTube videos of dancing animals. Adena Schachner is a graduate student in the psychology department of Harvard University. She says she was familiar with the idea that some people had made videos of birds supposedly dancing. ... She and her colleagues eventually analyzed more than 5,000 videos. 'Imagine watching YouTube eight hours a day for a month,' she says. 'That's pretty much what we did. It was amusing for perhaps the first couple of hours.'" juuri adds, "While this makes them somewhat unique in the animal world, as only three animals are now known to dance by verifiable proofs, what struck me more was that this was the first time YouTube had helped forge a new scientific understanding. Given the explosive growth of uploading videos and people watching them, what other new understandings and popular misconceptions will be proven or disproved due to this emerging media?"
The pictured Sun Conure (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The pictured Sun Conure (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got a Sun Conure, which happens to be the same bird in the picture in the summary. He's only 5 months old, so he's not all out dancing, but he does seem to be starting to respond to music, as he'll start to bob his head in time for a few seconds at a time. Search youtube for kimba's song, and you can see the Sun Conure groovin to a performing beatboxer.
I have a cockatiel and he's about eight years old. He has a little metal band around one of his feet, I guess to prove that he was domestically bred and not poached (not sure exactly). He does one thing that I've never seen another bird do, though it's not as extreme as actually dancing. If I play certain percussive music or if I drum on my desk with my fingers, he will tap that metal band against his wooden perch to either the same rhythm or the same rhythm with little variations.
Sometimes he'll do this as a sort of "Simon" game where I'm supposed to match his little drum-solo and then he tries to match mine. It never occurred to me that birds would properly dance, though this one does make displays etc that are a lot like dancing. Either way, they definitely do have the required sense of rhythm. I've kept birds for a number of years and I can say that you can guess but you never really know for certain just how smart they are, except maybe to say "probably more than you think".
Re:The pictured Sun Conure (Score:2, Interesting)
I've kept birds for a number of years and I can say that you can guess but you never really know for certain just how smart they are, except maybe to say "probably more than you think".
Too true. At times, you may think you're training your bird, however, the reverse is true. How many times I've found myself acting like a spastic retard trying to get my brid to do something entertaining...*bows head in shame*
Re:The pictured Sun Conure (Score:3, Interesting)
I've kept birds for a number of years and I can say that you can guess but you never really know for certain just how smart they are, except maybe to say "probably more than you think".
Too true. At times, you may think you're training your bird, however, the reverse is true. How many times I've found myself acting like a spastic retard trying to get my brid to do something entertaining...*bows head in shame*
Haha yeah I know what you mean. There's definitely something special about them. I really think that if more people kept birds, then "bird-brain" would never have been considered an insult.
Common crows are incredible too. I believe they are the only non-primate that will not only use tools, but make and then use them. Crows have been known to find bits of wire and bend them into a "hook" and use that to get food, probably insects. If there is a nut they want to eat but cannot crack, they have been known to place it on a road and wait for a car to run over it and crack it for them. Of course that sounds very basic to us as humans but that kind of planning and forethought is quite rare among animals.
My own dancing cockatoo (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The pictured Sun Conure (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah, the Sun Conure. Beautiful and intelligent birds. Not so great at the vocal mimicry as others, but fully equipped with an ear-piercing shriek designed to travel great distances through the thick South American rain forests which serves as their equivalent of "hi". Also, quite social and friendly, so they like to say "hi" a lot when they know you're home, though they're not quite up on human social norms enough to understand the concept of sleeping in on a Saturday.
Plus they can live for 20-40 years.
Have fun! =D
Re:Psychology researchers are masters of the obvio (Score:3, Interesting)
My wife's parrot can whistle "The Happy Wanderer." As a matter of fact, he'll whistle it continuosly until you are ready to strangle him.
Parrots are like a three year old child in a lot of ways, including repeating a good thing ad infinitum.
Re:Otter Porn! (Score:3, Interesting)
Otters are the rats of the ocean. Specifically the behaviors of the males during child rearing are atrocious. An adult male will actually hold his own children hostage until the female provides food.