Photo: Colleen Reichmuth, NMFS 23554, via the New York Times.
Ronan, a California sea lion of the Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Do you recall reading about the dancing cockatoo Snowball with the head-banger technique? Snowball was a big hit for a while there. I think critter behavior is interesting even when it does not look like human behavior, but it seems that scientists can’t get enough of animals dancing like humans.
Here are two relevant Guardian reports — one on on sea lions and one on rats.
“Ronan the sea lion can still keep a beat after all these years. She can groove to rock and electronica. But the 15-year-old California sea lion’s talent shines most in bobbing to disco hits such as ‘Boogie Wonderland.‘
“ ‘She just nails that one,’ swaying her head in time to the tempo changes, said Peter Cook, a behavioral neuroscientist at New College of Florida who has spent a decade studying Ronan’s rhythmic abilities.
“Not many animals show a clear ability to identify and move to a beat aside from humans, parrots and some primates. But then there’s Ronan, a bright-eyed sea lion that has scientists rethinking the meaning of music.
“A former rescue sea lion, she burst to fame about a decade ago after scientists reported her musical skills. From age three, she has been a resident at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory, where researchers including Cook have tested and honed her ability to recognize rhythms. …
“What is particularly notable about Ronan is that she can learn to dance to a beat without learning to sing or talk musically.
“ ‘Scientists once believed that only animals who were vocal learners – like humans and parrots – could learn to find a beat,’ said Hugo Merchant, a researcher at Mexico’s Institute of Neurobiology, who was not involved in the Ronan research.
“But in the years since since Ronan came into the spotlight, questions emerged about whether she still had it. Was her past dancing a fluke? Was Ronan better than people at keeping a beat?
“To answer the challenge, Cook and colleagues devised a new study. … The result: Ronan still has it. She is back and better than ever. This time the researchers focused not on studio music but on percussion beats in a laboratory. They filmed Ronan bobbing her head as the drummer played three different tempos – 112, 120 and 128 beats per minute. Two of those beats Ronan had never been exposed to, allowing scientists to test her flexibility in recognizing new rhythms.
“And the researchers asked 10 college students to do the same, waving their forearm to changing beats. Ronan was the top diva.
“ ‘No human was better than Ronan at all the different ways we test quality of beat-keeping,’ said Cook, adding, ‘she’s much better than when she was a kid.’ “
Meanwhile, at the Guardian, Hannah Devlin writes that rats, too, “instinctively move in time to music. This ability was previously thought to be uniquely human and scientists say the discovery provides insights into the animal mind and the origins of music and dance.
“ ‘Rats displayed innate – that is, without any training or prior exposure to music – beat synchronization,’ said Dr Hirokazu Takahashi of the University of Tokyo.
“ ‘Music exerts a strong appeal to the brain and has profound effects on emotion and cognition,’ he added.
“While there have been previous demonstrations of animals dancing along to music – TikTok has a wealth of examples – the study is one of the first scientific investigations of the phenomenon.
“In the study, published in the journal Science Advances, 10 rats were fitted with wireless, miniature accelerometers to measure the slightest head movements. They were then played one-minute excerpts from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, at four different tempos: 75%, 100%, 200% and 400% of the original speed. Twenty human volunteers also participated.
“The scientists thought it possible that rats would prefer faster music as their bodies, including heartbeat, work at a faster pace. By contrast, the time constant of the brain is surprisingly similar across species.
“However, the results showed that both the rat and human participants had optimal beat synchronicity when the music was in the 120-140 beats per minute (bpm) range – close to the Mozart composition’s original 132bpm – suggesting we share a ‘sweet spot’ for hitting the beat. The team also found that rats and humans jerked their heads to the beat in a similar rhythm, and that the level of head jerking decreased the more that the music was sped up. …
“The team now plans to investigate how other musical properties such as melody and harmony relate to the dynamics of the brain.
“ ‘Also, as an engineer, I am interested in the use of music for a happy life,’ said Takahashi.”
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