# Are there any animals that can appreciate music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470 "2002-08-12T02:19:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/1 "2002-08-12T02:19:31Z")
Other than humans, of course, I don’t mean dogs howling, or studies that show cats are healthier in a music-filled environment, or something like that. I mean evidence that they can recognize that music is more than noise, or a Pavlovian signal to salivate. For instance, can an ape or a parrot, or something, be taught to recognize the rhythm underlying one piece of music, and then keep time, by tapping a beak or tapping paws in time, to a similar but new piece of music? If not, could this be what separates humans from other animals, intelligence-wise? Just curious… ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/2 "2002-08-12T02:21:59Z")
If a Mod can amend that Subject line to, “Are there…”, so I don’t look quite so illiterate, I’ll buy him/her a beer at the next ChiDope. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/3 "2002-08-12T02:33:59Z")
Well, music calms the savage beast. And, at flea markets, music calms the salvage beast! 😉 But seriously, don’t racehorse horses or foxhunt dogs recognize the sounds of bugles for these respective sports, or is this a myth? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/4 "2002-08-12T02:43:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jinx \* > \*\*Well, music calms the savage beast. And, at flea markets, music calms the salvage beast! 😉 But seriously, don’t racehorse horses or foxhunt dogs recognize the sounds of bugles for these respective sports, or is this a myth? - Jinx \*\* I would think this is in the nature of a trained response to an audible signal, like Pavlov’s dogs salivating to the rining of a bell. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/5 "2002-08-12T03:15:46Z")
On episode of [PBS’s Nature](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/song/) was about animal music. Some people definitely think whales sing, and it’s pretty clear birds do. They use very complex noice patterns for communication and apparently for pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/6 "2002-08-12T03:46:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chula \* > \*\*On episode of [PBS’s Nature](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/song/) was about animal music. Some people definitely think whales sing, and it’s pretty clear birds do. They use very complex noice patterns for communication and apparently for pleasure. \*\* So **we** understand that **they** sing. The question is more a matter of, do **they** understand that \*\*we \*\*sing? But I am interested in your last point, that they sing “apparently for pleasure”. Can you point me to any info on this? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/7 "2002-08-12T03:47:58Z")
Cats love music, especially Disco! They love it when you hold their little paws and conduct along with the Andrea True Connection singing “More, More, More” in the background. Oh sure they’ll wiggle and squirm and yowl a little bit but that just means they want to dance and sing! Here’s a song I sing to them while we conduct. [DISCO KITTY](http://www.spydersempire.com/a_no478.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/8 "2002-08-12T03:48:54Z")
D’oh, sorry chula. I didn’t notice the link in your post. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/9 "2002-08-12T04:35:33Z")
There are some interesting articles linked on that page. But now I’m not sure I understand what you’re looking for. You want evidence that animals appreciate human music? Humans often don’t even appreciate music from other cultures, so I doubt that’s the case. They like there own music, which sounds nice and means something to them. You can switch my “there” for your “their.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/10 "2002-08-12T07:48:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jinx \* > \*\*Well, music calms the savage beast. \*\* Actually it’s “soothes the savage **breast** ” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/11 "2002-08-12T09:41:56Z")
I had a dog that, when I played piano, would trot into the room and lay at my feet as long as I played. Until she went deaf One of my lovebirds used to sit on top of a speaker, close his eyes, and rock back and forth to music. He seemed to particularly like “Sweet Home Chicago”. He figured this out on his own, he was never trained to do it. His son would sit on my shoulder while I played piano and nip my ear if I made a wrong note. Some songs he seemed particularly partial to, others he would try to snag the music and throw it on the floor, which seems to be expressing an opinion. My current bird, a cockatiel, imitiates music. We haven’t formally trained him on any tunes, so he’s picking them out. So far it’s the theme from “Andy Griffith” and “Colonel Bogey’s March”, aka “Bridge Over the River Kwai” Now, are these Pavlovian response or actual preferences? I think it show some appreciation for pretty noises. You may feel differently. ---
**Author:** ![Servo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Servo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Servo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/12 "2002-08-12T12:42:11Z")
**yojimboguy** , I think I know what you mean. I’ve wondered the same thing myself and I’ve done some woefully un-scientific experiments with my dogs. We’ll be playing something like keep-away, while there’s music on, and I’ll pull the toy away from him in beat with the music to see if he’ll catch on and anticipate when I’ll move next. So far nothing. [I do realize that if he ever did, he might just be recognizing a pattern and not connect it with the music at all.] ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-animals-that-can-appreciate-music/123470/13 "2002-08-12T17:04:16Z")
This from the BBC: [Five elephants from Thailand are to release a CD of their music on xylophones, percussion and harmonica.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1011154.stm) I’ll leave it up to you to decide how much they appreciate their own music, but according to the television version of the story they’re hard to stop once they’ve got started.