click on the mouse and listen


Male mice tune into musical mating call

By Cheryl Wittenauer
The Associated Press


ST. LOUIS — Songbirds may be the Sinatras of the animal world, but male mice can carry a tune, too, say Washington University researchers who were surprised by what they heard.

Scientists have known for decades that male lab mice produce high-frequency sounds — undetectable by human ears — when they pick up the scent of a female mouse. This high-pitched babble is presumably for courtship, although scientists are not certain.

But it turns out those sounds are more complex and interesting than previously thought.

"It soon became ... apparent that these vocalizations were not random twitterings but songs," said researcher Timothy Holy. "There was a pattern to them. They sounded a lot like bird songs."

To make their point, the researchers provided audio recordings of the sounds, which have been modified for human ears. The recordings do indeed sound birdlike. (Samples of mouse song modified to make them audible to humans can be heard at http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/6040.html.)

The findings by the researchers at Washington University School of Medicine were published online Tuesday in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.

If the researchers' analysis is confirmed, mice can be added to the short list of creatures that sing in the presence of the opposite sex, including songbirds, humpback whales, insects and, possibly, bats...

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