BS: Singing rodents.....

Subject: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 31 Oct 05 - 11:24 PM

So it would seem that mice burst into amorous song when they smell female mouse urine and whats more they appear to be in the style of ballads, unaccompanied too.

Wonder which songs they sing? And do non melodeous mice not get a look in? Is there a Mudmouse website?

The ardent mouse relies on melody to woo his mate
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 01/11/2005)

When a male mouse meets the object of his desire he sings her a love song, scientists have discovered.

It has long been known that male mice utter ultrasonic squeaks in the presence of the opposite sex, but a study using the latest computer analysis has established for the first time that these are more than mere random sounds - they are full-blooded love ballads.

Courtship melodies, which are sung at a frequency beyond human hearing, are common among birds, insects, and frogs, but such behaviour in mammals had been thought to be restricted to humans, whales and bats.

The discovery that mice have a gift for song could mark the most significant leap in the understanding of rodents since it was discovered a few years ago that rats have a chirp-like laugh.

The team can now compare human and mouse genetic codes to help look for genes in human DNA that are involved in song.

For sounds to qualify as a song, says Dr Timothy Holy, a researcher at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, there "should be some syllabic diversity - recognisably distinct categories of sound, instead of just one sound repeated over and over.

And there should be some temporal regularity - motifs and themes that recur from time to time, like the melodic hook in a catchy tune."

With his colleague Dr Zhongsheng Guo, he found that mouse song has both qualities.

To hear the mouse squeaks, the researchers played them back at one-sixteenth of the recorded speed and dropped the pitch to reveal what sounds remarkably like birdsong, with a similar richness and diversity.

The mice are driven to sing by a whiff of female urine. The males produce rapid "chirp-like" syllables of varying duration, spaced at about 10 syllables per second, with a burst of closely spaced syllables followed by periods of silence.

Trials with 45 different mice produced similar results, with each male singing a slightly different tune.

The team now wants to see whether the females are swayed by a good male song, which could be a measure of his fitness.

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Cluin
Date: 31 Oct 05 - 11:33 PM

Froggies sing when they go a-courting, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 31 Oct 05 - 11:34 PM

Well, there was that mousey Greek chorus in "Babe"...

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 31 Oct 05 - 11:41 PM

...and the howling of the "dreaded Onychomys" (as it's known in our household) has been recognized for years. (It helps that it's clearly audible to humans.) Scroll down a bit on this page -- "you can't miss it".

~ B in T

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 12:01 AM

.. and to think "A Windmill in old Amsterdam"

is solid evidence that predates this 'new' research
by only a mere 4 decades !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 04:06 AM

OK, so they could sing, but their grammar and rhyming skills were crap!

(How lucky we am.... I ask you!!!)

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: greg stephens
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 04:09 AM

It is interesting that the singing is stimulated by the smell of female urine. This suggests quite a simple mmethod to get a singers night off to a good start in a folk club.

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Paul Burke
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 04:22 AM

How good is your Dutch, Liz? The mice would probably have spoken better English if they'd been educated at Rodeant.

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 04:32 AM

Just because they were living in a windmill in Old Amsterdam, doesn't mean they were Dutch Mice.... There is a part of New York called New Amsterdam... my aunt lives there, and she's neither Dutch, nor American.

"Just because one is born in a stable, it does not mean that one is a horse".

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: GUEST,Shanghaiceltic
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 04:34 AM

I pondered about the mouse singing and female mouse urine bit, good thing it does not apply to we humans otherwise there would be a complete mail voice choir outside the ladies..........

Be a good test of bad beer though....

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Arnie
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 05:14 AM

Well, in the spririt of inclusivity, I think I may have to invite a mice act to our folk club. I think we have already had Skinners Rats in the past, although they are not really mice but pretty close. Anyway, the pub cat is all in favour......

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: gnomad
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 05:40 AM

This rodent had a "musical" career

I seem to remember some kids programme used also to feature a mouse-organ.

As for the female urine, could this be why the lager-swilling rugby crowd sometimes erupt into song?

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: halaswell
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 06:57 AM

Bagpuss was the children's program with The Marvellous Mechanical Mouse Organ

I think the music to the program was by Sandra Kerr, Nancy Kerr's sister.


PS

.... an AD at the bottom of the current mudcat page is for 'Mouse control'

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 07:55 AM

Sandra would be flattered but Nancy is her daughter!

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: halaswell
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 08:02 AM

So long as she takes it as a compliment, thanks manitas

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: MuddleC
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 09:10 AM

what about 'Monty Python's Mouse Organ.................?


-tune mallet to Bflat?

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 08:29 PM

There haver been a few rodent songs collected, as I recall:

The Intoxicated Rat

The Rodent Mariners

Three Blind Mice

Froggie Went A-Courting

But there is always room to add to the database.

There should be ample inspiration from this thread alone.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 08:35 PM

Alvin and the Chipmunks were three singing rodents.

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 09:12 AM

Singing rodents!

Ah, but is it folk music?

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 07:15 PM

No, it's Rodent Music.

♫ I smell peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... ♫

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 08:18 PM

I've always believed that people could sing before they learnt to talk, and that it's a more basic form of language.
...............................................

I imagine it won't be long before someone comes up with evidence that female mice sing too.

To hear the mouse squeaks, the researchers played them back at one-sixteenth of the recorded speed and dropped the pitch to reveal what sounds remarkably like birdsong, with a similar richness and diversity.

I'm looking forward to the mousesong records coming out. Preferably in time for Christmas.
....................................

But that bit about how singing "in mammals had been thought to be restricted to humans, whales and bats." I known the old libel about horses not singing, but what about cats? Or gibbons? Or wolves?

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 08:58 PM

Raccoons sing! Well, it's more a kind of trilling. I suppose if there were a group of them, they might even harmonize, a kind of raccoon do-wap!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, who thought you might like to know!

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 10:22 PM

The original article is in the open-access journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology, so you can read all about it and hear it too. Audio files are toward the end of the article, above the references. They're pretty cool. Click here. (The article published online in advance of the print edition, that's why it's December 2005.)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 12:53 AM

"To hear the mouse squeaks, the researchers played them back at one-sixteenth of the recorded speed and dropped the pitch to reveal what sounds remarkably like birdsong, with a similar richness and diversity."

I would have liked the chance to hear this.

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: GUEST,Rat Stewart
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 01:01 AM

Urine my heart, urine my soul...

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: open mike
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 02:09 AM

amazing sounds...scroll down and there are recordings in the article.
my cnaries went wild about them and so did the dog..
so they are not in agreement if it is something with
feathers or fur singing!

byt eh way ads below are for pet mice and frozen feeder rodents

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 01:10 PM

The mouse
Sings for spouse

His bidings
Bring glad tidings

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 03:24 PM

I saw it, Guest, Rat. I snickered.

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: GUEST,Rat Stewart
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 05:00 PM

Thanks, Cluin. That was me, feeling bashful.

Elmer Fudd

Subject: RE: BS: Singing rodents.....
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 05:13 PM

Vewwy Humowous.