Mice can learn to sing from each other
OCT 11, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.026433
BBC : Male mice sing in ultrasonic frequencies as part of their courtship of female mice. A new study by Erich Jarvis at Duke University in North Carolina has shown that, like humans and some birds, mice can learn from other members of their species to change their tune. Male mice with different vocal pitches, when housed together, would match their individual pitches over a period of 8 weeks. When two male mice with different pitches were both in the presence of a female mouse, one of themâmdash;usually the smaller oneâmdash;would match his pitch with the other’s. Jarvis believes that the ability of mice to learn different ways of singing is somewhere between the ability of chickens and that of songbirds.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
