Ultrasonic bouts of a blind climbing rodent (Typhlomys chapensis): acoustic analysisстатья
Статья опубликована в высокорейтинговом журнале
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 20 ноября 2019 г.
Аннотация:Bouts of ultrasonic pulses produced by blind Vietnamese pygmy dormice (Typhlomys chapensis) are different from ultrasounds produced by bats and whales for echolocation. The peculiar acoustic structure of ultrasonic bouts of Typhlomys might provide insight on their potential function. We examined 1481 bouts consisting of 1-6 pulses; 49.7% of them were single-pulse bouts. Bout duration and inter-bout interval depended on the number of pulses per bout, whereas period from start of a previous bout to start of the next bout was constant (80.0±2.9 ms). Ultrasonic pulses (540 pulses measured in a subset of 234 bouts) were short (0.68±0.15 ms) sweeps with fundamental frequency slopes from 127.3±6.3 kHz to 64.1±4.6 kHz and peak frequency at 93.3±7.4 kHz, emitted within bouts with inter-pulse periods of 13.03±3.01 ms. Single pulses and start pulses of multi-pulse bouts were lower in frequency than other pulses of the bouts. In contrast, pulse duration was independent on pulse position within bout. Pulses of Typhlomys were reminiscent of echolocation calls of Murina and Myotis bats, but higher in frequency, much shorter, fainter, displayed a convex contour of frequency modulation and only the fundamental frequency band without harmonics. In addition, organizing the ultrasonic pulses in bouts is not characteristic for bat echolocation. Being organized in bouts, pulses of Typhlomys were reminiscent of audible click trains used by hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) for echo-ranging (food search and avoiding obstacles) in muddy waters. Most probably, Typhlomys uses their ultrasonic pulses for call-based orientation during locomotion, including climbing and jumping among bush branches.