Joel Kontinen
“Birds of a feather flock together, but this cockatoo rocks alone. A new study reveals that the internet-famous cockatoo named Snowball can do more than just bust moves — whether headbanging, wildly tapping its foot or gyrating its mohawked head — in sync with the beat of the music. The parrot creates his own steps as well.” Snowball surprised the researchers again. "
Aniruddh Patel, a professor of psychology at Tufts University in Massachusetts did some tests with snowball in 2009.
“’ After that study, we noticed him doing new movements to music that we hadn't seen before,’ Patel, said. These new moves were Snowball's own creations; they weren't modeled after any cavorting from his owner, Irena Schulz, nor was he trained (for instance, no food rewards were involved) as he came up with this new repertoire, Patel said.”
The study was published online on July 8 in the journal Current Biology.
Cockatoos are a hard case for evolutionists. They are
better tool users than chimps and can make music with a stick, something that chimps don't. Playing rock is just one of their many achievements.
Source:
Geggel, Laura. 2019. Cockatoo Who Taught Self to Head-Bang Proves Rock Transcends Species. Live Science (8 July).
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