So much for the Beatles, Byrds, the Monkees, and Country Joe and the Fish.
> An interesting article.
>
>Jim
>
>
>Male mouse sings a song of love
>Male mice serenade potential mates with
>ultrasonic love songs, a study by US scientists
>has revealed.
>The research adds mice to the exclusive club of
>mammals that can sing, which has until now
>comprised only human beings, bats and cetaceans.
>
>A University of Washington, St Louis, team
>studied ultrasonic squeaks emitted by mice when
>they smell a female and found that they form
>complex songs.
>
>They have published details in the scientific journal PLoS Biology.
>
>Scientists have known for some time that mice
>emit sounds at a frequency outside the range of
>human hearing. But it was always possible that
>these could have been random vocalisations.
>
>Washington researchers Tim Holy and Zhongsheng
>Guo now demonstrate that this is not the case.
>
>Accidental discovery
>
>They discovered the songs by accident, while
>investigating how male mice responded to sex
>pheromones released in the urine of female mice.
>
>When the males encountered cotton swabs dunked
>in female mouse urine, they broke into song.
>
>Dr Holy and his team processed the sound
>recordings to make them audible to humans,
>lowering the pitch without interfering with the
>tempo.
>
>Instead of making the ultrasonic chirps
>randomly, the mice used several different types
>of syllables arranged in regular, repeated time
>signatures resembling birdsong.
>
>Their vocalisations meet the characteristics of
>song, Dr Holy and Dr Guo claim.
>
>Singing plays a prominent role in the courtship
>rituals of amphibians, birds and insects.
>
>But it is known only in a handful of mammals,
>including bats, humans, cetaceans - including
>whales and porpoises.
>
>Story from BBC NEWS:
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4395664.stm
>
>Published: 2005/11/01 11:11:43 GMT
>
>=A9 BBC MMV
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
--
Wild Sanctuary
P. O. Box 536
Glen Ellen, CA 95442
t. 707-996-6677
f. 707-996-0280
http://www.wildsanctuary.com
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