If you put a thousand otters in a room and give them a keyboard, one is bound to write Beethoven.
Perhaps the process of creating music extends further than us, and maybe the next great composer won't even have thumbs.
A family of Asian small-clawed otters have taken to the keyboard as part of the National Zoo's animal enrichment program (completely serious with this one).
If you can believe it, the otters have their own keyboard and are seemingly more technical than your normal novice. Their latest composition is quite, well, idiosyncratic.
Precision and delicacy are a part of their stylistic preferences as bold avant-garde composers.
But on a serious note, zoo officials say that the music "helps the animals to work on their sight, touch and hearing" according to NPR and the Associated Press.
And twice a month the otters have access to keyboards, along with other gifts purchased by patrons such as art supplies, rubber balls, iPad apps and climbing fixtures.
So for your viewing pleasure, though you've probably seen it, here are the world's next great minds.
If that wasn't enough, an orangutan has followed suit in the same footsteps as his otter counterparts as well.
