The creature who earned that distinction is a seal named Ronan, trained to follow a simple repetitive sound with her head. While that may not sound all too impressive, what happened next shocked the researchers, who captured the amazing sight on camera and shared the footage on YouTube, embedded below.
"Once she had learned, without any further training, Ronan was able to find and keep the beat in complex stimuli, including music," one of the researchers explains in the video as the seal dances to "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire, and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by the Backstreet Boys.
While the skill of beat mimicry has previously only been observed in humans and some types of birds capable of vocal mimicry, Ronan's ability suggests that many more species could have untapped musical abilities.
"These findings show that the capacity for entrainment of movement to rhythmic sounds does not depend on a capacity for vocal mimicry, and may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously hypothesized," the study explains.
This video was published to YouTube on Sunday, March 31, 2013.
This animal is imprisoned in a so tiny pen and pool, this borders on torture; but it's all fine and dandy and such important research is being carried out of course.. a sea lion can keep a beat....wow!
Actually it is torture, if I was made to head bang to the Back Street Boys repeatedly, just for a few measly fish, I think I would rather drown myself personally.
This poor animal is not so great...it obviously has an awful taste in music.