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Vocal signals with different social or non-social contexts in two wild rodent species (Mus caroli and Rattus losea)

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Abstract

The ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) of rodents play a substantial role in the communication and interaction between individuals; exhibit a high degree of complexity; and are influenced by a multitude of developmental, environmental, and phylogenetic factors. The functions of USVs are mainly studied in laboratory mice or rats. However, the behavioral relevance of USVs in wild rodents is poorly studied. In this work, we systematically investigated the vocal repertoire of the wild mouse Mus caroli and wild rat Rattus losea in multiple social or non-social contexts, e.g., pup-isolation, juvenile-play, paired opposite-sex encounter, female–female interaction, social-exploring, or foot-shock treatment. Unlike the laboratory mice, M. caroli, whose USVs were recorded during pup-isolation and courtship behaviors, did not produce any vocal sounds during juvenile-play and female–female interactions. R. losea, similar to laboratory rats, emitted USVs in all test situations. We found higher peak frequencies of USVs in both these two wild rodent species than in laboratory animals. Moreover, the parameters and structures of USVs varied significantly across different social or non-social contexts even within each species, confirming the context-sensitivity and complexity of vocal signals in rodents. We also noted a striking difference in call types between these two species: no downward type occurred in M. caroli, but no upward type occurred in R. losea, thereby highlighting the interspecific difference of vocal signals among rodents. Thus, the present study presents behavioral foundations of the vocalization context in wild mice and wild rats, and contributes to revealing the behavioral significance of widely used USVs in rodents.

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All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper. Additional data related to this paper are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Project of Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation between Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012B091100260), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong (2019B121202004; 2021B1212110003), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32172435), Research Foundation of the Education Department of Hunan Province of China (22B0257), and Postdoctoral Research Grants at the Central South University of Forestry and Technology (45220003).

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  1. College of Forestry, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, China

    Yi Chen, Zuofu Xiang & Qianqian Su

  2. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Yi Chen, Qianqian Su, Jiao Qin & Quansheng Liu

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  1. Yi Chen
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  2. Zuofu Xiang
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Contributions

QL designed the study. YC, QS, JQ and QL contributed data collection. YC, ZX and QS contributed data analysis. YC and QS and QL conceived and prepared the draft. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Quansheng Liu.

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Collection of rats was done according to the guidelines of Regulations for the Administration of Laboratory Animals (Decree No. 2, State Science and Technology Commission, People's Republic of China). The animal experiments conducted in this study were approved by the Guangdong Entomological Institute Administrative Panel on Laboratory Animal Care (No. GDEI- AE- 2006001).

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Chen, Y., Xiang, Z., Su, Q. et al. Vocal signals with different social or non-social contexts in two wild rodent species (Mus caroli and Rattus losea). Anim Cogn 26, 963–972 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-023-01745-6

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