he next time you have a mouse on the loose in your home it might be slightly more soothing than you expect after two singing species were discovered.
The Scotinomys teguina (Alston’s singing mouse) and S. xerampelinus (Chiriqui singing mouse) use their vocal chords to squeak melodies.
This is done to attract mates, intimidate enemies and mark their territory in the rainforests of Central America.
‘Most people are puzzled by the existence of singing mice, but in reality many rodents produce complex vocalisations, including mice, rats and even pet hamsters,’ said author of the research paper Bret Pasch.
This provides the possibility of having a whole choir of singing rodents should you have an infestation but Mr Pasch stressed the sounds were often so high-pitched that human’s couldn’t hear them.
‘Often they’re high-pitched and above the range of human hearing,’ he added.
The research team worked in Costa Rica and Panama and the paper was published in The American Naturalist.
