|
 It turns out male mice actually use ultrasonic "love songs" to woo
females, using different tunes when they smell but do not see a
female and when they lay eyes on their potential lady love,
scientists said on Wednesday.
"I do think there is more going on with animal communication than we
humans have been attuned to," Duke University neurobiology professor
Erich Jarvis said. "There is a clear communication signal in the
mouse songs and not just random sequences of vocalizations."
The researchers compared the songs to the courtship songs of male
songbirds, although mice are more limited in their ability to modify
their tunes. The mouse songs are a sequence of utterances, or
syllables, strung together, at times with a tempo.
 "Those songs are really high in pitch, above 50 kilohertz, and are
not audible to humans. When we pitch them down and play back at real
speed, it sounds like a bird," Duke postdoctoral fellow Jonathan
Chabout added.
Scientists have known for decades that mice make such sounds, like
when a pup calls for its mother, and have worked to better
understand what they communicate.
The researchers exposed male lab mice to different situations,
recorded their songs, then analyzed them.
The males sang more complex and louder songs when they were able to
smell the urine of a female mouse but not actually see that
potential mate. With the female present, the males changed their
tune, with longer, simpler songs.
[to top of second column] |
"I think the mice are saying with the complex songs, 'Pay attention
to me, I'm here, come to me, and see how my complex song sounds
great,' as a measure of his health. Then the females assess it, and
he simplifies the song when she is directly next to him in order to
spend energy to try to mate," Jarvis said.
The researchers played the two song types to sexually mature
females, finding they preferred spending time next to speakers
playing the complex song.
"Whether or not it's a specific syllable type or something else in
the complex song, we don't know," Chabout said.
The research was published in the journal Frontiers of Behavioral
Neuroscience.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
