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If you’ve ever been to a zoo, you no doubt observed that monkeys have some rather – um – interesting hobbies, like throwing things that shouldn’t be thrown. But a new study shows they have good taste in music.
The Discovery Channel reports a new study published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters found that when it comes to music, both humans and animals prefer to stick to their own kind. Except for monkeys. They love Metallica.
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“All of the previous studies on the effect of human music on animals has shown that they don’t give a hoot about our music,” David Teie, who co-authored the study, told Discovery News’ Jennifer Viegas. “Did we really think that bats would get little tears flowing up their little faces when listening to the ‘Ave Maria’?”
Who knew a lecturer from the School of Music at the University of Maryland could be so funny?
Teie explained the main reason for the preference is that human music is specifically designed to appeal to, well, humans and “is based on human development and perception, from the speeds of the pulses to how high the melodies are.”
So where does Metallica come in? Teie composed some pieces that mimiced tamarin monkey communication using sounds found in their calls. The music had a marked effect on seven pairs of adult cotton-top tamarins when it was played for them.
Playing human music drew little response until Teie and his partners played Metallica. And then the effect was surprising: It calmed them down.
Discovery News notes that this is the first study that shows “a non-human animal can truly appreciate music.”
I’m guessing the folks at Discovery News have never been to an outdoor music festival.
A tamarin monkey.
The study’s co-author, University of Wisconsin professor of psychology and zoology Charles Snowdon, told DN the study raises the theory that primitive humans might have been able to communicate with each other through music long before they developed any type of speech.
Apparently Teie isn’t stopping with monkeys. He’s already written music for domestic cats and would like to create a species-specific music project at the National Zoo that would be a sort of animal Muzak for those in captivity.
Wow. Think about that. It could open up a whole new market for XM and Sirius.
Oh, and Metallica? Hey, fans are fans.
Read Discovery News’ complete report on Teie and Snowdon’s study here.