Elephants sway their trunks and dance to classical music - video

'We were amazed at how the elephants were swinging their trunks in time with the music'

(ITN)

Another vaguely useful piece of knowledge to add to your list of animal facts: lions and monkeys hate classical music, while elephants love nothing more than to sway their trunks in unison to a bit of Holst, Mahler and Mozart.

Not that the gentle giants like it when you tickle their ivories - rather, elephants at Belgium's zoo, Pairi Daiza, enjoyed a serenade from two violin players from Belgium's Royal Chamber Orchestra.

The zoo in the Belgian capital was preparing for series of evenings this summer when live music would be played around the park (similar to London Zoo Lates) and the staff wanted to check to see how the elephants would respond to the late-night noises.

They needn't have worried: Jean-Francois Chamberlan and Anne Pigeon's violin performance made the animals sway their trunks in time with the music and even move their whole bodies around in a sort of dance.

A spokesperson for the zoo, Nico Vanhee, told Buzzfeed News: "We were amazed at how the elephants were swinging their trunks in time with the music."

However, while the elephants enjoyed all things classical, the lions did not share the enthusiasm while a monkey climbed on the instruments to stop the orchestra from playing.

As with all genres of music, classical clearly divides opinion, among all creatures.