Dance, Snowball!

There is a cockatoo named Snowball that has been a big hit on YouTube. He bobs his head and lifts his feet in time to music. The amazing thing is that researchers changed the timing of the music, playing it faster and then slower, and Snowball could still keep time. This goes against the previous idea that only humans have the ability to keep time to music.

The talent to keep time to music has been linked to the ability to learn and mimic sounds. Birds that can talk seem to also have the ability to dance to music. Researchers decided to take another look at animals to see if others have this ability. After checking videos of dogs, cats, chimpanzees, birds, and elephants, the scientists found that only birds that can mimic sounds have the ability to dance, with one exception—an elephant. A single Asian elephant was able to keep time to music even when the tempo was changed.

This ability would seem to be hard for evolutionists to explain. If humans are basically a higher form of apes, why can’t chimpanzees keep time to music? How did the ability evolve in some birds and then in humans but not in primates? Evolutionists would have to conclude that the ability evolved two separate times, once in certain birds and later in humans. This seems very far-fetched, considering that the ability to dance to music would not help an animal survive (survival of the fittest).

God has given men and some birds a unique ability to appreciate and respond to music. It is a gift that we are to use to sing His praises!