Modern humans generally spend their lives in environments rich with acoustic stimuli, such as music and vocal conversations. In contrast, laboratory animals are typically kept in confined spaces under controlled conditions, which significantly limits their auditory experiences. While such experimental controls are essential for certain studies, they may also hinder the animals from expressing their full potential in auditory perception and sound production. Even in human psychological experiments, researchers often consider participants’ musical experience and education as independent variables. A similar approach can be applied to non-human animals. It would be intriguing to explore how living in acoustically enriched environments influences the cognition of non-human animals. Investigating this question could offer valuable insights when comparing vocal behavior and musical abilities across species. To address this question, I investigated the vocal behavior of cockatiels—a parrot species raised by human caretakers and exposed to human music as well as other auditory stimuli, such as human speech. The birds spontaneously imitated a melody of music. Moreover, they precisely synchronized their vocalizations with the playback of the melody and even generated novel vocal sequences. These observations suggest that their acoustic environment had a significant influence on their vocal behavior.
Yoshimasa Seki (Wed,) studied this question.