Mice Sing to attract mates, like birds

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46184222/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Just another achievement to add to the pile of "amazing stuff rodents can do with their brains that we didn't even realize until five years ago". Not only do some rodents, like the prairie dog, have a level of language complexity higher than most primates, but rats have metacognition and form highly complex social groups capable of passing on cultural practices to their young (the study showcased how a group of italian rats had learned to hunt underwater mussels, and taught their children how to do the same). And now, we can add complex mating songs to that extensive repertoire.

Makes you wonder if The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy was right about white mice...

Wait... if they're in the ultrasonic frequency range, would it be possible to audio-edit the pitch to make their singing audible to humans?

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

Wonder if they ever sing for the fun of it.

i. hear. a. sound.

I imagine that they do, and it goes a little something like this:

I'd laughif where closer to this.

This is interesting discovery. It shows that we have clearly missed a lot of nature, simply because we are not equiped correctly.

Still, I am going to quote lead researcher:

It does once again bring up the big question. Are more life forms sapient than we thought, simply because we arent equipped to see their sapience?

Should be. We can't hear whalesong without speeding it up.

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

I rather doubt it. A fully sapient being is a pretty dangerous customer, by definition.

A widespread species with these abilities would probably make itself known pretty quickly, mostly by dealing with aggressors and interferes in terminal ways.

Perhaps there could be sapient species in some parts of Earth with which we interfere rarely, or not at all. Nowadays, this basically leaves only the deep ocean or far inside Earth's crust. I dunno, perhaps those rare giant molluscs could be sapient? It's a long shot, mostly because sapiency appears to be rare, but I would not consider this entirely impossible.

This result is very interesting, but we already knew that mice are very bright for their size. Not "crow" bright, but very bright nonetheless.

What interests me is that the article says that the patterns of mice songs are similar to those of bird songs. I wonder if there is some sort of attractor here, and what it is due to...

edited 31st Jan '12 3:49:47 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Exactly where in the definition does this come in?

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

Well to be fair, mice and rats are actually mankind's chief competitor on this planet. We lose about 40% of all of our food to the little beasts. Yes, nearly half of the planet's food supply is eaten by mice and rats, every year. Perhaps it is their way of declaring war on such a large and formidable species? And if it is, then they are doing pretty well in the man-rodent war, to be honest.

In the part that says that they are able to come up with complex models of the world and develop long-term, multiple-parts plans for the realization of their objectives.

A civilization of sapient mice would be a serious contender to the role of dominant species. They would lack our manipulative abilities, perhaps, but that can be dealt with through cooperation: a single mouse does not have the manipulative abilities of the average human, but twenty mice working together could be arguably superior.

edited 31st Jan '12 9:32:59 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

or they could simply send one mouse out to disarm us with its adorableness.

You're assuming they're belligerent. Maybe they realize that they're very small and best achieve success by not antagonizing their enemies? Not all "complex models" and "multi-part plans" involve world domination after all. Some people just want to pay their rent and watch TV.

edited 31st Jan '12 9:25:10 AM by Clarste

Yeah, 20 mice could probably be dangerous. But how about A BILLION?

Zerg Rush KEKEKEKEKKEK

Just use Firebats flamethrowers.

So mice sing. Creepy.

Please.

OK, I know this is old, but damn, can we have a new thread dedicated to talking about mice in general? I think they're a really underused conversation topic in... anywhere, really.

H.B. Ward

We have topics for biology and wildlife conservation, if you don't think either of those would work you can always start a new topic, though I'd suggest making it more about animals in general so as to keep it alive.

This topic however is now liable to be locked.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

Closing this.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman