The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11879   Message #396502
Posted By: RichM
12-Feb-01 - 02:38 PM
Thread Name: Animals' response to music
Subject: RE: Animals' response to music
Not strictly music, but dance is related, isn't it?

Near Ottawa, Canada where I live, my wife and I stopped one summer evening in a national park. We walked into a large clearing and suddenly met a doe and 2 half grown fawns.
We shushed each other and tried to walk slowly closer to them, but they were having none of that!. They kept walking away from us, gradually increasing speed.

In a moment of inspiration, I remembered someone's advice about wild animals: Do something unexpected!

I began singing and dancing in crazy circles like a bunny on speed---and it worked. The deer stopped, and then began to walk back towards me! They stared until I couldn't dance anymore. When I stopped, they stood still for a minute and then slowly walked away, looking back over their shoulders, until the doe shooed her fawns into the bush away from us.