This post was originally published in 2015. It is republished in our “From the Archives” series, featuring highlights of our vast back catalog of more than 10,000 birding-related posts published over the last 15 years or so.
Hmmm … maybe there’s a reason why Zebra Finches seem to flock to Clare M.’s fountain.
In this world-weary age of ours, you may think you’ve heard it all. But you’ve never heard a drunk Zebra Finch try to sing. Unless you’re a scientist who studied just that very thing and recently reported your results in PLOS One.
The findings of this research, as summarized by Discover Magazine: Zebra Finches are a good proxy for studying human speech. So researchers got a group of males good and liquored up (using juice with 6.5% alcohol content*) and prompted them to sing by playing recordings of females. The resultant songs were quieter and more slurred versus those of sober birds, and researchers posit that the mangled song snatches were produced by different brain pathways than the parts of the song that sounded normal.
The scientists report that they found a safe way to get Zebra Finches intoxicated. They also believe their results demonstrate the bird’s potential for further studies of how alcohol affects human speech. Prediction: future research will take place in a karaoke bar.
*According to the researchers, no Zebra Finches were harmed in the making of this study. Except, perhaps, their pride on the morning after.
Leave a Comment