Snowball, the Dancing Cockatoo Gets Down Dancing to the Beat!

[appalachiablue]

NPR, 7/9/19. Snowball the cockatoo got Internet famous in the late 2000s when a video of him dancing to the beat of the Backstreet Boys went viral.

Aniruddh Patel, who is now a psychology professor at Tufts University, was astonished when he saw the video on YouTube a decade ago. "I said, you know, this is much more than just a cute pet trick. This is potentially scientifically very important," he told NPR in 2009.Now Patel and his colleagues have found that Snowball busts at least 14 different dance moves. Their findings were published this week in Current Biology.

R. Joanne Jao Keehn, a dancer and cognitive neuroscientist at San Diego State University, is lead author of the paper. She analyzed videos of Snowball dancing to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. The researchers found that the cockatoo's repertoire includes headbanging, body rolls and vogueing.

Patel, who studies music and the brain and is a co-author of the paper, says that he and his colleagues were impressed by the diversity of Snowball's movements. "We've shown previously that he could synchronize to the beat of music," stepping his feet and bobbing his head in time to music, Patel says. But foot lifting and head bobs are typical parrot behaviors, used to move around and woo other parrots...

More, https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739523240/snowball-the-dancing-cockatoo-vogues-and-body-rolls-on-beat

[Princetonian]

1. Snowball actually has 18 different dance moves according to a choreographer in a recent study

No other animal besides humans can do that.

[appalachiablue]

2. Truly amazing creature!

[appalachiablue]

3. Way to go, Snowball!!!

[red dog 1]

4. They are very smart birds.

K&R, thanks for posting.

[appalachiablue]

5. Very intelligent and also very sensitive and needy

according to articles I've read. Some owners and experts have strong advice for anyone contemplating getting a Cockatoo or other exotic birds. They stress how important it is to first get to know the breeds esp. Cockatoos which require a good deal of care and attention to or else things could go bad- acting out, noise and more- the basic gist of it.

That said I found 'Snowball' quite talented, adorable and endearing- a fun little creature.