Study: Romantic male mice enjoy singing
November 1, 2005
Washington University scientists have confirmed a long-standing suspicion: romantic male mice enjoy singing complex songs to potential mates.
Neuroscientists at the St. Louis university found male mice burst out in song when they encounter sex pheromones from female mice, The Guardian reported.
The songs aren't audible to humans because they are sung at an extremely high frequency.
Researchers Tim Holy and Zhongsheng Guo said they made their discovery while testing how male mice responded to sex pheromones. The scientists said within seconds of encountering female mouse urine, the males began emitting ultrasonic songs.
The scientists recorded the sounds and then made them audible to the human ear by slowing the audio track and lowering the pitch, while retaining the tempo.
Such courtship melodies are common among birds, insects, and frogs, but such behavior in mammals has previously been thought limited to humans, whales and bats.
The study appears in the open access journal, Public Library of Science, Biology.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
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