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by nkoren 3092 days ago
Here's a cockatoo that genuinely seems to dig Elvis (worth waiting until 2:00): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEQuDyuQFKE.

And Whales have music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_vocalization#Song_of_the... -- their singing employs musical rhythm and phrasing, and is culturally transmitted rather than instinctual.

Scientists are generally quick to give such vocalisations -- along with bird song, etc. -- purely functional attributes, thereby dismissing any aesthetic or emotional meaning it might have for the animal. "It's a territorial signifier". "It's for mate selection." Etc. This is a mistake: Mozart used his music to get laid; what musician doesn't? We can't know what these sounds truly mean -- subjectively, not functionally -- to an animal, because we can't talk about it with them. But that doesn't mean that it is empty of meaning.