The idea for a science experiment can come from an unusual place. After watching a YouTube video of a dancing bird named Snowball, a scientist in Californina decided to study the ability of animals to keep the beat. Bird lovers have long claimed that their pets have rhyhm, and there are many videos of dancing birds online. Until now, scientists have suspected that humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music. Thanks to Snowball, is changing. Snowball is a cockatoo, a kind of parrot, and his favorite song is "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys. When he hears the song, he moves his feet and rocks his body with the tempo, or pace of the music, as though he is the only bird member of the boy band. Aniruddh Patel is a neuroscientist, or a scientist who studies how the brain and the nervous system contribute to learning, seeing and other mental abilities. He works at the Neurosciences Instiute in San Diego. After seeing Snowbaill's dance online, Patel visited the cockatoo at the bird rescue facility he's called home for two years. The scientist played "Everybody" for Snowball and also played versions of the song that were sped up or slowed down. Sometimes, Snowball danced too fast or too slowly. Often, when there was a change in tempo, Snowball adjusted his dancing to match the rhythm. In other experiments, scientists have observed the same abilities in preschool children. Patel isn't the only scientist who has studied Snowball's moves. Adena Schachner, who studies psychology at Harvard University, also wanted to know more about the dancing bird. Schachner's team played different musical pieces for Snowball and a parrot named Alex, as well as eight human volunteers. The scientists observed that the birds and the humans kept time to the music with about the same accuracy. Schachner and her team watched thousands of YouTube videos of different animals moving to music. Not all the animals could dance, however. From watching the videos, the scientists observed that only animals that imitate sounds, including 14 parrot species and Asian elephants, accurately moved in time to music. According to the scientists, Snowball's ability to dance to music is probably related to the fact that    _    .
it is the only bird member of thd Backstreet Boys band it has the ability to imitate sounds it is a kind of dancing parrot it has the same abilities as preschool children