Ultrasonic courtship vocalizations of male house mice contain distinct individual signatures

Abstract

Acoustic communication mediates many types of social interactions; however, few studies have investigated whether courtship vocalizations contain distinctive individual signatures necessary for individual recognition. Male house mice, Mus musculus, produce spectrally complex ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during courtship and mating, which appear to attract females and increase male reproductive success. Our goals were to (1) describe quantitative and qualitative changes in the vocalizations of wild-derived male house mice, M. m. musculus, induced by a female odour stimulus; (2) measure individual variation and consistency in male USV emission over time; (3) test whether the variation in USVs is greater between than within individuals; and (4) identify individual signatures in spectrotemporal features using univariate statistics, multivariate models and machine learning methods. We recorded males once per week for 3 weeks, used an automated method (A-MUD) to detect USVs, and manually classified them into distinct syllables. We found that most males did not vocalize until they encountered female scent, and then most males dramatically increased the number and the types of different vocalizations (repertoire size and composition). Male USVs showed high interindividual variation and most showed intraindividual consistency, and we found greater inter- than intraindividual variation for both USV count and repertoire size. Male USVs contained individual signatures in most spectrotemporal features, regardless of the method of analysis. Males sometimes produced few, if any, vocalizations when presented with female scent, but consistent nonvocalizers were rare. Our study provides the first evidence that individual signatures in USVs of male house mice are stable over time and across recording trials, although studies are still needed to investigate repeatability across social contexts and to test whether USVs mediate individual recognition.