Abstract
BackgroundThere has been considerable research on rodent ultrasound in the laboratory and these sounds have been well quantified and characterized. Despite the value of research on ultrasound produced by mice in the lab, it is unclear if, and when, these sounds are produced in the wild, and how they function in natural habitats.ResultsWe have made the first recordings of ultrasonic vocalizations produced by two free-living species of mice in the genus Peromyscus (P. californicus and P. boylii) on long term study grids in California. Over 6 nights, we recorded 65 unique ultrasonic vocalization phrases from Peromyscus. The ultrasonic vocalizations we recorded represent 7 different motifs. Within each motif, there was considerable variation in the acoustic characteristics suggesting individual and contextual variation in the production of ultrasound by these species.ConclusionThe discovery of the production of ultrasonic vocalizations by Peromyscus in the wild highlights an underappreciated component in the behavior of these model organisms. The ability to examine the production of ultrasonic vocalizations in the wild offers excellent opportunities to test hypotheses regarding the function of ultrasound produced by rodents in a natural context.
Highlights
There has been considerable research on rodent ultrasound in the laboratory and these sounds have been well quantified and characterized
The ability to examine the production of ultrasonic vocalizations in the wild offers excellent opportunities to test hypotheses regarding the function of ultrasound produced by rodents in a natural context
Our recordings were made during the breeding season for both P. boylii and P. californicus
Summary
There has been considerable research on rodent ultrasound in the laboratory and these sounds have been well quantified and characterized. Ultrasound is commonly used for orientation and prey localization by diverse taxa, including bats, odontocete whales, insectivores, and rodents. Mice and rats have historically been used for classical human biomedical research and, more recently with the sequencing of both genomes [8,9], have become the main models for the basis of human and mammalian development and behavior [10,11]. Because both rat and mouse infants predictably produce USVs in the laboratory, their
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