A cooperatively breeding mouse shows flexible use of its vocal repertoire according to social context

Abstract

Mice exchange information using chemical, visual and acoustic signals. Long ignored, mouse ultrasonic communication is now considered to be an important aspect of their social life, transferring information such as individual identity or stress levels. However, whether and how mice modulate their acoustic communications is largely unknown. Here we show that the cooperatively breeding African striped mouse Rhabdomys pumilio controls its vocal production both qualitatively and quantitatively, depending on naturally relevant social context. By conducting controlled experiments in captivity, we found a vocal repertoire consisting of seven vocalisation types, which it uses differently depending on different types of social interactions. Familiar individuals of the same or different sex vocalise more than two unfamiliar same-sex individuals. The greatest diversity of vocalisations was recorded during the encounter between an unfamiliar female and male, suggesting that certain vocalisations are mainly used for courtship. Our results highlight that familiar mice may alternate their vocalisations while unfamiliar individuals tend to overlap one another. These observations suggest that African striped mice control the production and temporal dynamics of their vocalisations, addressing targeted information to specific receivers via the acoustic channel.