3 months ago
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The headbang, body roll, foot lift and sidestep – cockatoos can bust out some serious dance moves, Australian researchers have found.
Scientists from Charles Sturt University analysed 45 social media videos of cockatoos dancing, from which they identified 17 new dance steps and a total of 30 distinct moves. These dancing behaviours were present in both companion birds and captive birds.
The research team also observed dancing behaviour in six cockatoos across three species kept at Wagga Wagga Zoo. These captive cockatoos were seen dancing both with and without music playing, and some even performed their own individual dance moves by combining several moves in unique ways.
Primary supervisor of the study Rafael Freire said the similarities observed in the dancing behaviour of cockatoos and humans suggests the presence of well-developed cognitive and emotional processes in the birds.
“When you look at the cognitive processes that you need to dance to music, the recognition, the synchronising motor movements to a certain rhythmic beat, the brain processes required in that interpretation and that control are quite sophisticated,” Freire, a professor in animal behaviour and welfare, said.
“So far, the only clear evidence of somebody other than a human being able to do this, what we call entrainment, is chimpanzees can seem to clap to a rhythm... It’s only early days, but we already know parrots are very good at problem-solving and are very clever in a lot of measures, and this may be another indicator of their cleverness.”
Illustration of the 10 most common recorded dance movements in cockatoos, according to a new study by Australian scientists at Charles Sturt University. Credit: Zenna Lugosi
The most commonly observed moves included sidestepping, body rolls, headbanging and the “footlift” and “turn”.
Some species of parrots have been observed dancing to music in captivity, but before this study, spontaneous dancing in time to music had only ever been reported in parrots and humans.
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What motivates captive birds to dance is still unclear.
Professor Freire said there were three key takeaways from the new study. The first is that dancing is more widespread and common in cockatoos than researchers previously thought.
“It seems to be something that’s quite commonly seen… we even saw it in all of these companion animals who weren’t used to music.”
The second is the variety of movements displayed by the birds.
“The variety really impressed us,” Freire said. “There’s a lot of different movements they do … it’s not just simple, or one movement ... it’s really varied, which raises a lot of interesting questions about whether they’re being creative and their individual differences in behaviour.”
The third, and for Freire, the most major takeaway, is that playing music, and encouraging dancing, might enrich quality of life of these birds in captivity.
David Kedward at home in Sylvania with his pet cockatoos. Credit: Sam Mooy
“When you look at them dancing, it’s difficult to try and explain it in any other way than they’re enjoying it. Enjoying, I know sounds anthropomorphic, but enjoyment is simply an emotion that is quite helpful in understanding how you maintain the behaviour, and the length of the dancing.
“And if that’s the case, then, of course, then that it might actually be a useful thing to play music to them in captivity, it might be for enriching their environment.”
David Kedward, from Sylvania in southern Sydney, has kept birds for the past six years and has 15 cockatoos of his own. He says his cockatoos dance regularly.
There appears to be a few triggers for their dancing behaviour, says Kedward.
“It depends on the individual. Some do it when they’re happy, some do it when they listen to music, some do it when they’re excited,” he said.
Some species are more inclined to have a boogie than others. Kedward has noticed his sulphur-crested cockatoos, corellas, galahs and Major Mitchells are much more likely to dance than other species.
The two best dancers in his cockatoo entourage are Biscuit, a sulphur-crested cockatoo, and Potato, a short-billed corella.
“They bob up and down, get off the ground and jump, and some of them like to headbang and side-step,” Kedward said.
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