Dancing is the ability to synchronize motor movements with the rhythm of music. It is a rare trait that has emerged in a few groups of animals, such as songbirds, parrots or cetaceans.
A cockatoo named Snowball became world famous for appearing in a YouTube video dancing to Queen's Another One Bites the Dust. The ability to dance may be more widespread in the animal world than previously thought, says Dr. David Boulden of the University of California, Santa Cruz. He says sea lions may not reach the level of vocal learning of parrots, or humans, in what is in fact, what is called vocal learning in the human brain, but they may still be able to dance to a certain extent, if they have been trained to do so by scientists.. The fact that dancing is so little widespread in nature requires an explanation, writes Dr. BouldEN. “Why is a phenomenon that seems so simple, so rare in nature?” he asks.