Here is yet another news item that brings to mind lines from Robert Browning's classic verse "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". This is a description of how the rats, mesmerised by the piper's tunes, follow him to the river.
From street to street he piped,
advancing, And step for step, they
followed, dancing,
Dancing rats? I can imagine this scene only as a cartoon.
But if you want to see a real animal, dance to contemporary music you should visit the popular video sharing site www.YouTube.com. In it there is an online video of a pet cockatoo dancing to a Backstreet Boys song.
(Backstreet Boys is a hugely popular American pop group)
Schererville, is a small town in the North Western Indiana province of the US. Here a couple, Irena and Chuck Schulz run a rescue shelter for birds called Bird Lovers Only Rescue. They have 30 birds but the star is the 11-year-old, Sulphur-crested cockatoo by name Snowball. Cockatoos are large birds that share many features with the parrots.
The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is a white bird with a dark grey-black bill, a distinctive sulphur-yellow crest on the head and a yellow wash on the underside of the wings. Apparently a man dropped off Snowball at the rescue centre along with the CD with instructions to watch the bird's reaction to the song. And what they saw left everyone in utter disbelief.
For, whenever the1997 hit song "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" is played, the bird lifts his legs, squawks and bobs his head, flashing his bright yellow crest to the beat! He even takes a bow with a vigorous bob of his head at the end pop tune. I have seen the video and it is truly unbelievable!
The amazing video of the dancing cockatoo makes one wonder if animals too have rhythm. The most common query on these lines is regards the dancing snakes that we get to see in our streets.
Contrary to the general misconception, snakes are not deaf. Even though snakes have no external ears they do have inner ear structures and can therefore detect even low frequency airborne vibrations. So it is possible that they hear the snakecharmer's music. As for the dance, scientists say that standing erect and extending the hood is a normal defensive reaction for a cobra. The swaying movement, could be a reaction to the movement of the performer's instrument and sometimes the tapping of his foot.
But many studies on animal behaviour have established without doubt that animals can tell the difference between different types of music. Experiments with monkeys have shown that even they prefer quieter, music to loud ones! Many farmers have observed that cows produce more milk when played Beethoven classical music than they do to pop music!
Do you strongly believe that your pet dog or cat understands music? In that case you better have your camcorder ready. You never know which particular song will make them do the boogie-woogie! You could then post the clip on the net and get the whole world to see and cheer your pet!
