It started with a hyacinth macaw named Sampson, who loved music. One day, he tentatively hopped up onto a log and curiously nibbled a stick, triggering the opening beats of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Sampson started to dance, bobbing his head in time with the rhythm.

It wasn’t a regular log or stick, nor a magical music-playing one, but a device that researcher Rébecca Kleinberger had created, born of the question: How can we use technology to improve and enrich the lives of animals?

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Sampson’s caretaker at the San Diego Zoo asked Kleinberger if she could create a tool Sampson could use to listen to music. What they didn’t realize is that Sampson would use the Joy Branch, as it was named, as a tool to draw

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