UCSC study: sea lions like Backstreet Boys

...but the metronome is pretty good, too...

The University of California in Santa Cruz – where I spent the first half of the year 2000 – has done research into the question which mammals aside from humans like Backstreet Boys. And I must emphasize that this is not an April fool's joke.



The winner is Ronan, a sea lion.




You might conjecture – and people have conjectured – that pinnipeds and similar mammals are way too primitive. Unlike humans and parrots – the latter are role models for many humans while they see other humans as their role models, sea lions don't display vocal mimicry.




But vocal mimicry is apparently not necessary to keep the rhythm just like silicon isn't necessary to follow an Al Gore Rhythm. Apparently, even without vocal mimicry, everybody can rock his body. Rock your body right.

The university has also employed a ton of acorns to train squirrels to write papers on loop quantum gravity.