Did you know chimpanzees love to dance? They also like clapping, nodding their head, and tapping their feet in time with the rhythm. A study shows that chimpanzees could like music. Researchers from Japan say their study could explain how humans developed an interest in music. The researchers conducted tests on seven chimps. They played the apes six songs on a piano for six days. The researchers said the chimps had a real sense of rhythm and the music changed their mood. The male chimpanzees seemed to react to the songs more than the females.
Chimpanzees passed on a liking for music and dance to early humans around six million years ago. The researchers said our love of dancing was deep inside the earliest humans. A researcher said: "Chimpanzees dance to some extent in the same way as humans." She added: "In humans, listening to music causes rhythmic movement, suggesting a close connection between the auditory and motor areas in the brain." She believes the research could explain the development of dancing in humans and why we love melody and rhythm so much.