(ANSA) - Verona, December 19 - Sharks at a Verona
aquarium are being played Christmas carols after a recent
American study revealed that fish can recognise melodies.
Gardaland Sea Life curator Sabrina Repetto said the 20
different shark species at the aquarium would be monitored
for their reactions to piped festive music such as Jingle
Bells and So This is Christmas.
``It`s a bit of Christmas fun for the staff and the
visitors, but it`s also an interesting experiment and we will
be watching the sharks carefully to monitor their reaction,``
Repetto said.
It is thought that species who spend most of their time
lying at the bottom of tanks will give the clearest signs of
whether they are enjoying the Christmas tunes.
``If they don`t appreciate a certain melody, in all
likelihood the sharks will come up from the bottom of the
tank and swim to the other side,`` Repetto explained.
The same experiment is also under way in aquariums in
the United Kingdom following the study by Harvard
University`s Rowland Institute for Science, which revealed
that fish could recognise a sequence of 84 notes from a
Rachmaninoff symphony.