14 DAY TRIAL // A report published in this week's issue of the Journal of Comparative Psychology details the behavior of Ronan, a 3-year-old sea lion which appears to be quite gifted in terms of keeping the beat while dancing.
Following their studying Ronan's behavior when the animal was exposed to music, Peter Cook, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his fellow researchers came to understand that the sea lion did more than merely move in a hectic manner while songs were playing in the background.
Thus, it appears that Ronan has a sense of rhythm, and can adjust its body movements so as to abide by a given song's beat.
Up until now, it was a common held belief that only humans and animals that had an inborn vocal mimicry ability (i.e. parrots and the like) were capable of pinning down a song's rhythm and responding to it.
However, the three-year-old sea lion proves that beat keeping does not necessarily go hand in hand with complex vocal learning.
“Dancing is universal among humans, and until recently, it was thought to be unique to humans as well,” Peter Cook reportedly said.
“When some species of birds were found to have a similar capability for rhythmic movement, it was linked to their ability to mimic sound. Now we’re seeing that even mammals with limited vocal ability can move in time with a beat over a broad range of sounds and tempos,” the researcher went on to explain.
When the researchers first taught Ronan how to dance, they used a simplified version of John Fogerty’s “Down on the Corner.” Later on, they made the sea lion bob its head to Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys, and "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire.
Despite the sea lion's never having heard these two last songs before, Ronan managed to keep the beat during several different trials.
Furthermore, the animal managed to synchronize its body movements to five different tempos of “Boogie Wonderland.”
Check out the video below to see Ronan dancing to several songs.
