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She steps onto the platform, music begins and immediately, Ronan the California sea lion starts moving in time.
Head bobbing, precisely on the beat.
When the rhythm ends, she pauses, bows, and exits.
It might sound like a form of entertainment, but it’s actually a carefully designed scientific test.
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have studied Ronan’s movements for over a decade.
This latest study tested her ability to follow unfamiliar rhythms, like this beat at 112 beats per minute and compared her performance directly to humans.
Peter Cook, co-author of the study says Ronan could open the door to better understanding the connection between animals and music.
“For literally hundreds of years, people have wondered whether the musical ability that humans show universally across all human cultures is unique in the animal kingdom or whether it’s built up out of shared capabilities that other animals also have. And I think to date Ronan’s ability to move in time to beats, the precision she shows, the persistence she shows, the consistency she shows — she is the strongest argument, just all wrapped up in one sea lion, for at least one aspect of human music rhythm not being unique to humans.”
The experiment was simple in design but carefully controlled.
Both Ronan and human volunteers were exposed to the same rhythmic stimuli.
Ronan moved her head and the humans used their arms, while researchers tracked every movement frame by frame.
“We looked directly at humans doing exactly the same stimulus as Ronan. So she’s bobbling separately, the humans are waving their hands. They’re hearing exactly the similar stimuli and then we’re looking really closely at super high speed video at the exact timing of the movement of her head and the human’s hands and how that corresponds to the occurrence of the beats in the auditory signal they’re receiving.”
The results showed Ronan’s timing was not only highly accurate, but also more consistent than that of the human participants.
“We’re looking at a few different things and what we found is that Ronan is essentially always really right on or just a little bit ahead of beat. She’s super reliably the same from beat to beat to beat. Some humans are pretty good on those measures, but none of them were as good as Ronan on all of those measures.”
Ronan was rescued as a pup and could not be returned to the wild.
Instead, she’s lived in human care since the age of two, undergoing years of cognitive and sensory training.
“I don’t think Ronan is probably a uniquely gifted sea lion by nature. In a way she’s been at like a little Montessori School for Sea Lions is what my colleague Colleen likes to call it. She, every single day has super complicated tasks."
Though most sea lions aren’t being tested for rhythm, the findings suggest an evolutionary advantage in recognising patterns over time, such as the motion of waves or the chase of prey.
“Nature is full of patterns, including in time. There’s lots of times in nature where recognising patterns and being able to act based on how you predict they will play out is really potentially useful.”
Ronan’s rhythmic skill might not be a one-off.
Researchers are now working with other sea lions to see whether her abilities are shared across the species, or whether Ronan truly is in a class of her own.
Future studies will go beyond steady beats to test how animals respond to shifting, unpredictable rhythms to explore not just musicality, but deeper questions of cognition, timing, and learning.
