Tuesday, November 1, 2005 · Last updated 11:44 a.m. PT
Study: Mice sing in the presence of mates
By CHERYL WITTENAUER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
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.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Singing_Mice.html

from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/01/wmice01.xml

The ardent mouse relies on melody to woo his mate
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 01/11/2005)

When a male mouse meets the object of his desire he sings her a love song, scientists have discovered.

It has long been known that male mice utter ultrasonic squeaks in the presence of the opposite sex, but a study using the latest computer analysis has established for the first time that these are more than mere random sounds - they are full-blooded love ballads.

Courtship melodies, which are sung at a frequency beyond human hearing, are common among birds, insects, and frogs, but such behaviour in mammals had been thought to be restricted to humans, whales and bats.

The discovery that mice have a gift for song could mark the most significant leap in the understanding of rodents since it was discovered a few years ago that rats have a chirp-like laugh.

The team can now compare human and mouse genetic codes to help look for genes in human DNA that are involved in song.

For sounds to qualify as a song, says Dr Timothy Holy, a researcher at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, there "should be some syllabic diversity - recognisably distinct categories of sound, instead of just one sound repeated over and over.

And there should be some temporal regularity - motifs and themes that recur from time to time, like the melodic hook in a catchy tune."

With his colleague Dr Zhongsheng Guo, he found that mouse song has both qualities.

To hear the mouse squeaks, the researchers played them back at one-sixteenth of the recorded speed and dropped the pitch to reveal what sounds remarkably like birdsong, with a similar richness and diversity.

The mice are driven to sing by a whiff of female urine. The males produce rapid "chirp-like" syllables of varying duration, spaced at about 10 syllables per second, with a burst of closely spaced syllables followed by periods of silence.

Trials with 45 different mice produced similar results, with each male singing a slightly different tune.

The team now wants to see whether the females are swayed by a good male song, which could be a measure of his fitness.

I just saw your thread after I posted: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/01/wmice01.xml
Pet Mice Woo The Ladies With Song

Great minds think alike or stupid minds stick together?

Awwww how cute! :)

Great minds think alike or stupid minds stick together?

It's really hard to say.

There's a species of mouse that howls like a tiny wolf. I'll try to find a link...

They were talking about that here in the news tonight.

I love meeces to pieces no seriously I love mice.

I just saw your thread after I posted: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/01/wmice01.xml
Pet Mice Woo The Ladies With Song

Great minds think alike or stupid minds stick together?


The two threads are now merged.

Hey, Bjorn, I just read your signature. That's so funny. lol :)

I'm so not surprised. :smitten:

And since when did humans sing for courtship? Where's my singing prince?

here's your singing prince Sokara:

http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/6040.html

We can now listen to online audio of rodent love songs (needs realplayer)...

This thread reminds me of the singing mice in the movie "Babe". :D

I'm looping the 52 second mp3 in hopes to lure the mouse that has been running about my room...

I'm so not surprised. :smitten:

And since when did humans sing for courtship? Where's my singing prince?

ladee dee dah dee dee, marry me rhodent lady? hehehehehe.
a similar article was posted in our local SF paper, there is a link available where we can download the songs (altered for human aural perception). not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but i'll link it here.

mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/6040.html