This Sea Lion Has Groove, and She Doesn't Miss a Beat

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
Sep 16, 2012
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This Sea Lion Has Groove, and She Doesn't Miss a Beat


Ronan is the first animal not capable of vocal mimicry who can keep a beat.

Ronan, a California sea lion, has proved herself to be pretty talented at following a beat, challenging current theories as to an animal's ability to synchronize itself with sound. Ronan, who is 3 years old, proved her ability to bob to the beat in a series of experiments at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Peter Cook, the leader of the study, explained, saying that "dancing is universal among humans, and until recently, it was thought to be unique to humans as well." However, some birds capable of mimicking humans have been observed to recognize and bob to sound. "When some species of birds were found to have a similar capability for rhythmic movement, it was linked to their ability to mimic sound. Now we're seeing that even mammals with limited vocal ability can move in time with a beat over a broad range of sounds and tempos," said Cook.

Ronan learned to dance first with a simple beat - John Fogerty's "Down on the Corner." Ronan proved that she could bob her head to music with a little training. When introduced to new music, however, Ronan bopped right along - she didn't need to be re-trained for a new tempo. That includes the five tempos of "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Over the course of the trials, Ronan's skills improved markedly, and she became able to keep up with various types and speeds of sounds. By the end of the trial, Ronan was even able to keep the beat with a computer generated metronome designed to skip beats. When she was tested a few weeks after the study, it was found that her skills hadn't atrophied - she had truly learned how to groove.

Source: EurekAlert [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/apa-bkt040113.php]

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PunkRex

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Feb 19, 2010
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Heavy metal seal is best seal. Still, poor things proberly got terrible neck cramps...
 

Fappy

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Jan 4, 2010
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Okay, that made my day. That sea lion looks like she'd be the life of the party wherever she went.
 

Scarim Coral

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Oct 29, 2010
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While that is awesome and all but I'm glad the sea lion isn't in some circus where he/ she would have to do that on a regular basis nor would the zookeeper let it listen to very fast beat song well.
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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*Checks date* Hmm, all clear. Science is just weird.

Does she do requests? Through the Fire and Flames!
 

synobal

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Jun 8, 2011
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Now train it to a version of the Ganghem Style Dance and you will win the internet.
 

aelreth

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Dec 26, 2012
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So if you pay a mammal, they will do things that are otherwise thought to be otherwise implausible.

Until I heard they do so, I would never have thought that Seals hop onto boats for the express purpose to hitch a ride on them so they can travel up rivers via levies. Where there are no natural predators but plenty of fish.
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
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Kalezian said:
Kwil said:
Let's see her do KMFDM now.

it might be considered cruel, but lets see what happens when we use dubstep.




for [HEADING=1]SCIENCE![/HEADING]
If this video is a reference

<youtube=gEJHrmliVQw>

Amazingness
 

kburns10

You Gots to Chill
Sep 10, 2012
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This seal would provide hours of entertainment at Sea World or a similar place. Now if we could just get multiple seals together to do this..
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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watched without sound due to being at work.
does not look like much. he just beats up and down in a monotonic matter, looks like something thats trained rather than feeling the rhythm