Snowball The Cockatoo Taught Himself 14 Dance Moves & Grooves To Michael Jackson & Backstreet Boys
New research featuring YouTube sensation Snowball the dancing cockatoo showcases the surprising variety and creativity of his moves. In fact it suggests that it may be capable of some of the most sophisticated brain functions thought to be exclusively human up until now. So far 73 million people have clicked on the dancing videos of Snowball and millions more have watched videos of the bird bouncing and bobbing to chart-toppers.
New research featuring YouTube sensation, Snowball the dancing cockatoo, showcases the surprising variety and creativity of his moves. In fact, it suggests that it may be capable of some of the most sophisticated brain functions, thought to be exclusively human up until now. You really have to see it to believe it. Check out Snowball mastering plenty of dance moves below:
Watch Snowball the dancing cockatoo ¨C not only can he move in time to music, he's also invented a range of 14 dance moves * ?sound on* https://t.co/yKGXELcxD5 (?Irena Schulz) pic.twitter.com/UdBPp4sAh8
¡ª New Scientist (@newscientist) 8 July 2019
So far, 7.3 million people have clicked on the dancing videos of Snowball and millions more have watched videos of the bird bouncing and bobbing to chart-toppers by Michael Jackson and the Back Street Boys.
Among the video¡¯s 6.2 million viewers was Aniruddh Patel, and he was was blown away. Patel, a neuroscientist, had recently published a paper asking why dancing - a near-universal trait among human cultures - was absent in other animals. Some species jump excitedly to music, but not in time. Some can be trained to perform dance-like actions, as in canine freestyle, but don¡¯t do so naturally. Some birds make fancy courtship ¡°dances,¡± but ¡°they¡¯re not listening to another bird laying down a complex beat. True dancing is spontaneous rhythmic movement to external music. Our closest companions, dogs and cats, don¡¯t do that. Neither do our closest relatives, monkeys."
Patel reasoned that dancing requires strong connections between brain regions involved in hearing and movement, and that such mental hardware would only exist in vocal learners - animals that can imitate the sounds they hear. That elite club includes elephants, dolphins, songbirds, and parrots. No wonder, Snowball can move like a pro!
Happily for us and all his fans around the world, Snowball, who is only 23 and could live for another 50 years or more, is going to keep on dancing!
