Disney’s Cinderella is not the only place you can hear mice “sing.” Some real-world rodents also serenade each other. And now, scientists know how. The mice inflate tiny, balloon-like sacs in their airways. This creates whistling tunes.
Making music this way may be unique in the animal kingdom.
The critters are known as Alston’s singing mice. Found in the forests of Mexico and Central America, they truly live up to their name. Both males and females communicate with trains of high-pitched notes. Remarkably, their songs are more complex than those of any other rodent.
In just a 10-second song, an Alston’s singing mouse belts out around 100 individual breaths and notes. The melody attracts mates and warns rival males to stay away, says Samantha Smith. The song’s speed and length make it far more “extreme” than other rodents’ calls, she adds. Smith is a biologist at the University of Lausanne. That’s in Switzerland.
Smith is part of a team that wanted to know how the vocal systems of Alston’s singing mice evolved to create melodies. They started by dissecting the larynges of deceased animals. This “voice box” is a p...
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