![]() His dance moves prove parrots’ cognitive complexity, researchers say Among the most frequent were the “downward” move, the team’s term for his signature head bob, the “headbang with lifted foot” and his take on “voguing,” in which Snowball rapidly waved his head side-to-side with one claw in the air. Researchers mapped the more than 20 minutes of movement frame by frame and noted 14 distinct dances and two combinations, all performed to the beat of either song. Schulz watched from the same room and gave scattered verbal encouragement but refrained from moving herself. To test whether Snowball could incorporate a variety of body parts when music played, a trait only humans had ever exhibited, the team filmed him as he boogied to two seminal ’80s standards with different tempos: “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” each played three times. Snowball headbanged to the beat on his own Toe-tapping and head-banging are characteristic of parrot mating rituals, so it was difficult to draw any conclusions about the cognitive implications, study author Aniruddh Patel, a psychology professor at Tufts University, told CNN.īut shortly after that study concluded, Snowball’s owner (and co-author of the more recent paper) Irena Schulz contacted Patel after her bird had begun to explore new moves he devised himself in response to music. Researchers weren’t able to rule out then whether Snowball had imitated the movements of his human owners or if he could adjust his head-bops to different tempos. ![]() The study follows a 2009 paper that found a head-bobbing Snowball possessed an advanced musical beat perception compared to other animals that synchronize rhythms for mating purposes, like frogs or crickets. It’s evidence that some birds are capable of sophisticated cognitive control and a level of creativity previously unseen in other species. The sulphur-crested cockatoo broke big on YouTube in 2007 for his toe-tapping, head-bobbing performance to the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody.” But after spending a decade studying his wide repertoire of bangs, hops and lifts, researchers suggest that parrots and humans share a tendency to dance when the music moves them.Įver the entertainer, Snowball performed 14 unique dances when prompted by music, according to findings published Monday in Current Biology. Snowball can headbang, vogue and body roll as well as, if not better than, any rhythmically inclined human. ![]()
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