Abstract
Potential of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) to reflect a degree of discomfort of a caller is mostly investigated in laboratory rats and mice but poorly known in other rodents. We examined 36 (19 male, 17 female) adult yellow steppe lemmings Eolagurus luteus for presence of USVs during 8-min experimental trials including 2-min test stages of increasing discomfort: isolation, touch, handling and body measure. We found that 33 of 36 individuals vocalized at isolation stage, i.e., without any human impact. For 14 (6 male and 8 female) individuals, a repeated measures approach revealed that increasing discomfort from isolation to handling stages resulted in increase of call power quartiles and fundamental frequency, whereas call rate remained unchanged. We discuss that, in adult yellow steppe lemmings, the discomfort-related changes of USV fundamental frequency and power variables follow the same common rule as the audible calls of most mammals, whereas call rate shows a different trend. These data contribute to research focused on searching the universal acoustic cues to discomfort in mammalian USVs.
Highlights
Potential of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) to reflect a degree of discomfort of a caller is mostly investigated in laboratory rats and mice but poorly known in other rodents
Inspection of spectrograms showed that 100% individuals vocalized in USV range during the experimental trials (Table 1)
Most intense USV calling occurred at isolation stage, at which 33 of the 36 subject individuals produced USVs and 20 of them produced over 50 USVs
Summary
Potential of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) to reflect a degree of discomfort of a caller is mostly investigated in laboratory rats and mice but poorly known in other rodents. In adult yellow steppe lemmings, the discomfort-related changes of USV fundamental frequency and power variables follow the same common rule as the audible calls of most mammals, whereas call rate shows a different trend. These data contribute to research focused on searching the universal acoustic cues to discomfort in mammalian USVs. Human-audible (below 20 kHz) calls of mammalian callers reflect the increase of discomfort universally across species in the higher call rate, the higher fundamental and peak frequencies and the higher power quartiles[1]. The yellow steppe lemming potentially represents a very perspective wild-type
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