Friday 6 July 2012

Looking for the Next American Hyrax? Audience-Loving Animals Express Multiple Traits Through Their Songs



ScienceDaily (June 28, 2012) — If popular karaoke bars and the long audition lines for American Idol demonstrate anything, it's that people like to express themselves through song -- and the bigger the audience, the better. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University have found the same trait in small, rodent-like mammals called hyraxes, indigenous to Africa and the Middle East.

According to Prof. Eli Geffen and PhD candidate Amiyaal Ilany of TAU's Department of Zoology, hyrax vocalizations or "songs" go a long way towards communicating the singer's unique identity. Each one has unique songs that communicate a variety of information such as the singer's age, social rank, hormone levels, and size. And preliminary data suggests that the hyraxes prefer to sing when they have a more alert audience, taking the opportunity to promote themselves.

Understanding the function of the hyrax song will shed new light on animal communications, says Prof. Geffen, who notes that while birds are well known in the animal kingdom for singing, more complex vocalizations are rare in mammals. It's a model for learning how animals emit and receive signals, and what they understand from these communication channels, adds Ilany.

Continued:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120628145731.htm

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