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Ronan the sea lion enjoys grooving to various tunes, but “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind and Fire really makes her come alive.
It took only a few days for Peter Cook, a marine mammal sciences professor at the New College of Florida, to train Ronan to bob her head in time with the music. Using fish as a reward, he initially introduced her to the movement, followed by syncing her motion with a metronome. Over the next two months, he rewarded her with fish each time she matched her head bobs to the beats of the music, and soon enough, she could do it 60 times consecutively.
Before long, Ronan was able to synchronize her movements with live studio recordings featuring natural variations, intricate instrumentals, and syncopation—where different beats are emphasized at varying measures, Cook clarified. It wasn’t just Earth, Wind and Fire that got her moving; she also danced along to the Backstreet Boys and other rock tunes.
“Once she grasped the task, she seemed to transfer that understanding even to complex musical stimuli that include elements like meter,” Cook shared in a phone interview with Salon. “However, we still don’t fully understand how she perceives or comprehends concepts like meter and syncopation.”
Historically, many believed that humans were the sole species capable of recognizing an external beat and moving in sync with it. In 2007, Snowball the cockatoo went viral for dancing to a Backstreet Boys rhythm. Similarly, in 2013, Ronan the sea lion gained global fame for rhythmically moving her head to music.
These two instances are part of a burgeoning research domain focused on discovering which animals possess musical abilities, shedding light on the evolution of music in humans.
In 1871, Charles Darwin stated: “The perception, if not the enjoyment, of musical cadences and rhythm is probably universal among all animals.” Darwin posits that if music brings us joy, it may serve an evolutionary function. If all animals share a common ancestor, this trait could be evolutionarily inherited. However, investigating this is complicated.
“The challenge with studying the roots of musicality is that music doesn’t leave fossils,” commented Henkjan Honing, a professor of Music Cognition at the University of Amsterdam. “Cross-species comparisons can help resolve this issue because the expectation is that if you share a specific trait with a closely related species, then the common ancestor might have possessed that trait as well.”
In a sense, all animals generate rhythms, whether through fireflies flashing, birds singing, or even a tiger pacing. Some rhythms stem from pure physiology: walking, swimming, and heartbeats are all rhythmic. Yet, defining music is tricky as it is fundamentally subjective. Moreover, we cannot ascertain whether animals perceive music as we do or if that perception is a human projection.
We don’t know if animals experience music as music, or if that is our own human experience we are projecting onto them.
A recent study revealed distinct drumming patterns among eastern and western chimpanzees—two different subspecies observed in the wild. Although these patterns are short, structured, and rhythmic, they are believed to serve communication rather than purely musical purposes, according to study author Vesta Eleuteri from the University of Vienna.
“Certain chimpanzees drum with isochrony [simultaneous occurrence], but we did not observe other core musical rhythms common in humans,” Eleuteri explained during a video call with Salon.
Musicality implies that animals can flexibly control their rhythmic output. One way to assess if an animal is musical is to determine if they can identify a note’s pitch relative to others. Another method, which has received more research attention, is to see if they can synchronize with rhythmic beats, said Honing.
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Studies have shown that human children can synch their movements to a beat even before they can walk or talk; the origins of this ability—whether learned or innate—are unclear. While children may not perfectly sync at younger ages, they improve over time, hinting at social learning. Conversely, a 2009 study indicated that infants’ brains detected rhythmic patterns as early as seven months, suggesting the ability might be functional at birth.
Nonetheless, a May study illustrated that Ronan the sea lion outperformed adult humans when tasked with moving in sync to a beat. Although she doesn’t undertake this activity spontaneously outside her training sessions, she receives fish regardless of her movements, indicating she is purposely moving to the rhythm during training, according to Cook.
Although it’s unclear what motivates Ronan, Cook noted that sea lions, akin to Border Collies of the sea, quickly learn new tasks. This could be a factor in her engagement with the activity.
“I believe she finds pleasure in the cognitive challenge and the chance to master a skill,” he remarked. “But whether it’s about groove like it is for humans is still uncertain.”
Exploring the similarities and differences among primates, our closest living relatives, may yield insights into whether music has a common ancestral origin. For humans, whether walking or typing while listening to music, we instinctively synchronize with the rhythm. Research led by Yuko Hattori, an assistant professor at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute, showed that chimpanzees could sync their movements to various rhythms. Similar findings were also documented in another study with a bonobo, which managed to synchronize its drumming to a human.
The rhythmic movements observed in primates during these studies may not be as precise as those of humans, but one hypothesis regarding the origin of music might clarify the differences. This hypothesis suggests that humans’ rhythmic synchronization ability could originate from vocal learning. This means that as our vocalization skills evolved, so too might our ability to synchronize beats, according to Hattori.
“Monkeys are a more evolutionarily distant species, so perhaps there has been a gradual development throughout primate evolution,” Hattori mentioned during a video call with Salon.
This hypothesis could account for why both birds like Snowball and humans can synchronize with rhythms, even as it raises questions about Ronan the sea lion’s rhythmic abilities. Sea lions typically don’t adapt their calls to external cues in the wild, although seals do—sharing a common evolutionary lineage with sea lions stretching back more than 20 million years. This suggests that shared ancestors might possess some degree of vocal learning.
Obtaining brain scans for chimpanzees or sea lions poses ethical challenges, leaving us in the dark about the neurological processes behind their rhythmic movements. Yet, research on zebra finches provides insights into the motivations for their singing.
Zebra finches do not move to external rhythms but learn their songs from one another, indicating a degree of learning and internalization linked to music.
In a 2017 study, Ofer Tchernichovski from Hunter College conducted an experiment where birds endured unpleasant air puffs to reach a peep hole revealing a singing bird. It showed that male zebra finches would “pay” to hear any song, while females were only inclined to listen if it was their mate’s song. For females, mate songs led to increased dopamine levels.
“Interestingly, females do not respond sensitively to just any song, which defied our expectations,” Tchernichovski told Salon in a video call. “For females, the song seems primarily about mating, whereas male zebra finches associate it more with social interaction.”
A recent study published this year indicated that young zebra finches exhibited heightened dopamine activity when singing songs that closely resembled their adult versions compared to when they strayed further from those versions.
Additional research has revealed that male zebra finches evaluate their songs during solo practice, with better songs activating the dopamine system more than poorer ones. Yet, when singing for females, their dopamine response is driven by social feedback from the females.
Notably, studies show that the dopamine system in humans is also stimulated by music. In one study, participants listening to their favorite music while undergoing fMRI scans showed increased dopamine activity in anticipation of the experience.
Moreover, findings indicate that musical training during adolescence fosters empathy and promotes prosocial behaviors. In essence, it brings us together—evidenced when we clap along at concerts or sing popular lyrics. A 2014 study found infants were more inclined to help someone who rocked them in sync than when the rocking was out of rhythm.
“One significant theory regarding the origins of musicality posits that it acts as a form of social bonding, enhancing group cohesion,” Honing said. “With Snowball, for example: he enjoys dancing with his owner, and she participates in it, which he clearly likes.”
“Enjoyment is crucial,” Honing added. “If something brings you pleasure, it likely holds biological significance, hinting that it could be an adaptation.”
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