An Australian scientist won an award for a kangaroo dance video

WELI – Kangaroo Time (Club Edit)/YouTube

In the capital of Australia, Canberra, the scientist Weliton Menario Costa won the worldwide scientific competition “Dance Your Dissertation”.

The man interpreted the behavior of kangaroos using different dance styles, writes The Guardian.

Costa created the 4-minute entertainment video “Kangaroo Time” in which he talked about the results of his four-year study of kangaroo behavior using remote-controlled machines.

As part of his research, he studied behavioral differences among 300 wild eastern gray kangaroos in the Australian state of Victoria.

He found that kangaroos, like humans, develop at an early age and often imitate the personality traits of their parents, siblings.

Costa concluded that these animals are able to socialize and form their own circles of communication, just like humans.

“Difference leads to diversity. It exists in any form, it is natural”the scientist concluded.

His video featured twerkers, ballerinas, a drag queen, a dancer from India and friends of the author from the Australian National University, where he studied.

It is noted that the jury highly appreciated Kosta’s work for an accessible scientific explanation about the development of marsupials, as well as for “a sense of surprise and admiration.”

For winning the competition, Veliton Costa received a prize fund, the amount of which is about $2,750.

“It’s incredible, it’s like winning Eurovision, only all the contestants have PhDs. Communicating the results of research and making a clear connection between science and performing arts is a really big challenge.”said the winner.

Veliton Menario Costa is a biologist of Brazilian origin who received his PhD in 2021. He soon left his academic career and moved to Sydney, where he now seeks to establish himself as a singer and songwriter.

“I was born in a small town where most people are uneducated. When I came to Australia, it was like I came to my ‘family’. In ‘Kangaroo Time’ I celebrated the diversity of my beautiful community in Canberra, which mirrors the behavior of kangaroos.”– said Costa.

It is known that Australia will win the competition for the fourth time in its 17 years of existence.

In particular, in 2009, the winner was a participant from the University of Sydney, who created a dance video about the use of vitamin D for the prevention of diabetes.

The Dance Your Dissertation competition encourages academics to explain complex research to the general public through dance, music and humour, and attracts dozens of entries each year from around the world.

Its goal is to encourage scientists from around the world to explain research through dance, music and humor.

The main prize is awarded every year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science magazine and the artificial intelligence company Primer.ai from San Francisco, USA.

We previously reported that one of the world’s smallest fish measuring just 12 millimeters can make a sound louder than a gunshot.