The Animal Kingdom’s 8 Most Impressive Dancers (2 of 5)

Bees Perform a Peculiar Waggle Dance

Even though the size of a honeybee’s brain is smaller than a grain of rice, they are remarkably clever. Studies have found that they possess an internal sense of timing, which is critically important when it comes to communicating food sources to the rest of the hive. A bee will perform a figure-eight “waggle dance,” with the angle indicating where the nectar source is and the length of this dance corresponding to its distance. The ability to translate movement into a living map is virtually unmatched in the rest of the animal kingdom.

The Red-Capped Manakin Can Do the Moonwalk

The red-capped manakin is a tiny little thing, but that doesn’t mean the male can’t put on a wonderful show! To seek a lady, he does this quick backward glide along a branch that looks remarkably like Michael Jackson’s moonwalk dance. The surface of the “stage” has to be smooth and uncluttered, so before the dance routine begins, he removes moss and debris from a particular perch. He does the dance with pinpoint precision and slams his wings together to create buzzing sounds that send the female manakins’ hearts aflutter.