Percussion and rhythm are deeply rooted in the human psyche (and our biology), with even Charles Darwin noting humans’ innate joy in creating and dancing to rhythms. In a crazy first, it turns out that male palm cockatoos are the only other animals besides humans (that we know of) that create tools to tap out rhythms. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it also turns out that the Australian birds developed their musical talents to pick up ladies, with the male birds primarily showing off their drumming skills to accompany their mating calls when female birds are around (70% of the time to be exact).
Just A Reminder That Gorillas Hum ‘Little Food Songs’ To Themselves While They Eat
Robert Heinsohn, a conversation biologist at Australia National University, has been studying the species for the past two decades, and he recently published his findings on the male palm cockatoos’ penchant for percussion in Science Advances at the beginning of summer. As Heinsohn told National Geographic about the first time he witnessed the phenomenon in the wild back in 1997, “The cockatoo was clutching what looked like a stick and banging it on the trunk, and every so often he would pause, erect his amazing crest, and let out either a piping whistle or a harsh screech.”
He found that the beats made by the male birds were highly predictable and repetitive, with each bird developing its own personal drumming style to accompany its mating calls. Though other animals have been known to drum in the wild—such as chimpanzees who have been known to enjoy drumming on logs with sticks—palm cockatoos differ in that they create custom-made tools to lay out their sick beats.
As noted previously, male palm cockatoos’ drumming patterns frequently accompany their vocal and visual mating rituals to attract female palm cockatoos to mate. Because the birds’ “cheeks go red when sexually excited,” it’s pretty clear what the birds’ intentions are with their musical skills. However, some questions remain about why the birds picked up this trait in the first place. Heinsohn posits, “As soon as one male works out a pleasing drumming pattern involving rhythm that gets the stamp of approval from the females, then others would be quick to learn it so that it would spread easily in a population.”
Regardless of whether male palm cockatoos create music to pick up chicks or for themselves, Heinsohn (adorably) noted, “It seems that they are open to the pleasure of rhythm, just like humans,” he says.
[H/T National Geographic; Photo: Christina Zdenek]