Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice.

Abstract

Communication is central to mammalian social life, enabling group coordination and individual interactions, and often involves a trade-off between reach and privacy.¹ While signals resisting environmental attenuation reach distant audiences, they risk interception by predators or eavesdroppers; conversely, short-range signals ensure private exchanges.² Rodents frequently utilize ultrasonic vocalizations,^3,4,5 which, due to rapid environmental attenuation,⁶ are generally considered a private channel for close-contact interactions within social groups.^5,7 Although laboratory studies revealed that rodents' ultrasonic vocalizations encode rich information like emotions,^5,8 identity,^9,10 sex,^11,12,13 and strain,^12,13 the role of these physically constrained signals in organizing broader social landscapes remains largely unexplored in the wild.^14,15,16,17 Here, we investigated the communication system of the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio), a highly social and territorial rodent, combining propagation experiments, passive acoustic monitoring, and playback in the field. We show that striped mice emit ultrasonic calls within family groups and at territorial boundaries, using different types of vocalizations depending on the location. Furthermore, these signals carry group-specific information, allowing mice to discriminate between group members, neighbors, and strangers. By vocalizing at key locations, striped mice extend the functional range of their short-range signals to support a large-scale communication landscape mediating complex territorial dynamics.