I think it’s safe to say that Snowball is the most famous bird in the world. However, he wasn’t always like this. Actually, back in 2007 his owner decided to put him in a rescue center. So that’s how the story begins. He just left Snowball at the Bird Lovers Only center in Dyer, Indiana along with a Backstreet Boys CD. And of course with the staff being noticed that this parrot is in love with the dance.
At first, the volunteer at the center weren’t too impressed with Snowball’s dance move, until a video of his unique dance moves on Backstreet Boys hit ‘Everybody’ aired on Youtube gaining more than 6 million views. And ever since, Snowball learned 14 different dance moves hitting the beats of Pink, Bruno Mars, Queen or Lady Gaga.
“For the first half, Snowball struggled to find a dance that would fit,” Irena Schulz, center’s director said. “But about halfway through, he found moves that would work. The more that he was exposed to different music, the more creative he became.”
Snowball’s uniqueness determined researchers to study him. And after almost ten years of research, the scientists concluded that cockatoos have this tendency of dancing when the music is intense enough for them, exactly as human do.
On the other, the study revealed that Snowball is not just a regular bird. According to 7 News, the parrot possess an advanced musical beat perception compared to other animals, meaning the gets a human-like cognitive control.
“Parrots are unusual because these complexities are coming together in their brains,”the study author Aniruddh Patel told CNN. “When these capacities come together, it leads to the impulse to dance.”
With an average life span around 65 years, we still have a lot of years to get surprised by this unique creature, thinking he’s only in his 20s. “They have a personality of a 3-year-old, but they live for 50 years,”Patel declared.
