© 2024 WOSU Public Media
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Classical 101

Elephants Never Forget a Good Tune

Elephants at the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium sway to music being played by two violinists.
Pairi Daiza Zoo
/
Facebook
Elephants at the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium sway to music being played by two violinists.

We know music can soothe our souls and lift our spirits, but is there something universally appealing about music that resonates beyond our own species?  

Elephants at the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium can be seen dancing in time with Classical music, in fact, two of the elephants even began swaying and dancing in unison. This was not a learned behavior or trick taught to these animals, but they seem to have simply taken to the music naturally. The workers and musicians at Pairi Daiza first noticed the behavior while testing whether music for an upcoming music series would bother these intelligent creatures.

You might indeed find that there is something universally appealing about music after watching some of these videos:

Music of Bach is good for dancing anywhere:

There's also Beethoven for Elephants:

They even want to get in on the act when you play a little Ragtime: