Sea Lion Can Bop to the Beat Better Than Most Humans
- Editor OGN Daily
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
There are moments when we see an animal do something so far outside its presumed repertoire of behaviour - something so uncannily human - that we can never look at that animal, or ourselves, the same way again.
The phenomena first made global headlines when a video was posted on YouTube showing a young male cockatoo called Snowball really letting rip to a beat; then other scientists noticed that same rhythmic talents in numerous other species of parrot, bonobo and seals.
Now it's Ronan's turn to enjoy the limelight (again). She's a rescued sea lion who can definitely hold her own on the dance floor. In fact, the resident of the Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the focus of a new study that suggests the groovy seal’s rhythm is as precise as, if not better than, a typical human’s.
Ronan first made headlines in 2013 for her ability to bob her head to a beat, joining the short list of animals that have been proven to have rhythm. Now she’s back in the spotlight, as a recent study went a step further and compared her rhythm-matching ability to 10 UC Santa Cruz undergraduates. The researchers played three tempos (112, 120, and 128 beats per minute) and found that Ronan’s synchronization was better than that of the humans. She even rose to the top in a “head-to-head battle of the beats” with students.
“She is incredibly precise, with variability of only about a tenth of an eyeblink from cycle to cycle,” lead author Peter Cook said in a statement. “Sometimes, she might hit the beat five milliseconds early, sometimes she might hit it 10 milliseconds late. But she’s basically hitting the rhythmic bullseye over and over and over again.” (For context, a blink of a human eye takes 150 milliseconds.)
Cool moves aside, fellow author Colleen Reichmuth explained that Ronan is evidence that practice improves performance. “One of the most important outcomes of the study is the fact that maturation and experience matter. … It reflects her cognitive behavior and her ability to remember and refine it over time,” she said.