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SCIENCEVILLE — This video from the University of California Santa Cruz is really easy to love.
It's got throwback tunes like "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and it also has an adorable sea lion bouncing its head to the beat. But this video is packing a lot more than "aw" factor — it's full of science as well.
Researchers at UCSC started training Ronan the sea lion to see if he could keep the beat. They started out with a metronome and then slowly made their way to songs with complex beats. Ronan caught on, which actually has more implications than just a cute video.
This is from the description on the YouTube video:
"For years, scientists have thought that animals' 'rhythmic entrainment' (the ability to synchronize with an external beat) was necessarily associated with vocal capacities to imitate sound. Sea lions are quite limited in the sounds they can make, which 'poses a real problem for the theory that vocal mimicry is a necessary precondition for rhythmic entrainment,' according to (Peter) Cook, Dept. of Psychology - UCSC."
Yesterday's Have You Seen This?
Have You Seen This? Package thief is actually family of bears
Three bears were caught on video stealing an Amazon package from a front porch. Maybe they thought it was Goldilocks' house and they were out for revenge?That means we're killing two birds with one stone in this video. First is the fact that we're getting a highly entertaining video of a cuddly sea lion rocking out to the beat. The other is that we've all learned something that has possibly changed the way animal science is viewed.
Thanks, UCSC, we've both learned and been entertained. You win best school award for today.
