Jack's vocalization at 25Khz

Today I had a sucesfull detection of ultra sound rat vocalization. While I previously scanned out the 50-55khz band to hear "rat laughter", I switched on my Bat detector (Ciel CDB 105 ) while it was tuned to the lowest range of its spectrum 20-25khz. I just had given the lads (Ted and Jack) an egg and they were fussing over it to crack the shell when I switched the unit on.

Immediately I heared lots of wistling type of vocalization and it seemed most of it came from Jack. (His breathing seemed in sync with the sound)

I know lots of people would find this interesting, so I recorded a video of it



Later on, (not recorded) I heared Ted vocalizing as well as it seemed that he was having communication with Jack.

I will continue more recordings, this time usingthe aux on teh unit to capture the sounds on te PC. That will be interesting to see more details of the sound patterns created.

Stay tuned, more to come

This is really interesting! Thanks for sharing, just listening to the video now look forward to seeing what else you come up with!

xx

ETA - it's also sending my dogs mad! XD

That's so cool! It sounds like he's howling in frustration at not being able to get it open! Haha.
It fascinates me that they are making these noises that we can't normally here.

Love it. The thing that really strikes me is how much they sound like clangers

katherine wrote:Love it. The thing that really strikes me is how much they sound like clangers

Aha! Thats it.
I wondered what the noises reminded me of.

The "howling" is definitly an expression of frustration or dismay. Ted and Jack have typical spats where Ted doesn't submit to the stronger Jack (who is definitly the Alpha) I monitorred them on the 25khz during these events where I can hear Ted howl in dismay while Jack gives him a kicking. Ted then retreats to the anti agression tube where he wimpers on for a bit, but soon after, all is forgotten and they both cuddle up for a snooze. I noticed that Ted can start howling over the smallest of things, which agitated Jack and he then gives Ted something to howl about

Another observance I made, is when the girls go freeranging, they always visit the boys cage. When they do, the boys are trying to sniff them and as soon the girls make move to leave, the boys emmit a chrip in the 50khz range. This seems to "tempt" the girls back. This must be some "look at me, I am sexy" thing

The girls have been quiet so far, I expected Bubbles to be quite vocal as the is a meepy girl that we usually hear quite often in the human range of sound. I will keep monitorring to determin which situation will trigger a vocalisation behaviour in a certain range. Since their range goes up to a whopping 70khz, it will be trial and error to predict. Possibly I might upgrade to a more suffisticated unit that does a wide frequntie scan, so I won't miss anything, but for the time being, the manul tuning unit will help to map ranges with moods. Once I got a better idea what to expect, I will make some more recordings.

I'm feeling like a real sceintist now

update:

I got Bubbles to giggle

During free ranging, I was playing chase with her and tickling her belly and I could hear her laughing at the 55khz range.

Its so cute!

That is great, love the whining, my daughter says it sounds like a dog crying!

I have a request (or rather daughter does), purely scientific
She would love to know do rats talk in their sleep?
Our dogs do, the cats do and so does my daughter, love to know if rats do.

Dangerousbeans wrote:That is great, love the whining, my daughter says it sounds like a dog crying!

I have a request (or rather daughter does), purely scientific
She would love to know do rats talk in their sleep?
Our dogs do, the cats do and so does my daughter, love to know if rats do.

Excellent idea, it would show that rats dream. I'll give it a go to see if there is something to be picked up during their naps

Of course they dream everybody dreams
Look forward to results, thanks.