TY - JOUR

T1 - Ultrasonic calls accompanying affiliative contacts between adult groupmates in two Lasiopodomys vole species

AU - Volodin, Ilya A.

AU - Dymskaya, Margarita M.

AU - Smorkatcheva, Antonina V.

AU - Volodina, Elena V.

PY - 2025/11

Y1 - 2025/11

N2 - Ultrasonic calls (USVs) produced by rodents during contacts with group members are poorly studied compared to USVs elicited by isolation, handling, mate exposition or dyad same-sex interactions on a neutral territory. In this study, we apply a procedure for eliciting the USVs accompanying contacts between adult voles living in permanent social groups for two Lasiopodomys vole species. The values of all variables of fundamental and peak frequencies were significantly higher in L. brandtii than in L. mandarinus, the duration of USVs was two times longer in L. brandtii than in L. mandarinus. At the same time, the USVs did not differ between species in the occurrence of different call contours, nonlinear phenomena and note compositions. The USVs emitted during affiliative contacts were acoustically nearly identical to the low-frequency USVs described previously for these two species in the situation of short-term isolation from conspecifics. We discuss that voles can use the same type USVs in two different situations: of short-term isolation from conspecifics and during affiliative contacts in social groups. Call-eliciting procedure applied in this study is easy and potentially appropriate for pilot and comparative studies of USVs across species, including wild-type rodents without long experience of living under laboratory conditions.

AB - Ultrasonic calls (USVs) produced by rodents during contacts with group members are poorly studied compared to USVs elicited by isolation, handling, mate exposition or dyad same-sex interactions on a neutral territory. In this study, we apply a procedure for eliciting the USVs accompanying contacts between adult voles living in permanent social groups for two Lasiopodomys vole species. The values of all variables of fundamental and peak frequencies were significantly higher in L. brandtii than in L. mandarinus, the duration of USVs was two times longer in L. brandtii than in L. mandarinus. At the same time, the USVs did not differ between species in the occurrence of different call contours, nonlinear phenomena and note compositions. The USVs emitted during affiliative contacts were acoustically nearly identical to the low-frequency USVs described previously for these two species in the situation of short-term isolation from conspecifics. We discuss that voles can use the same type USVs in two different situations: of short-term isolation from conspecifics and during affiliative contacts in social groups. Call-eliciting procedure applied in this study is easy and potentially appropriate for pilot and comparative studies of USVs across species, including wild-type rodents without long experience of living under laboratory conditions.

KW - Acoustic analysis

KW - Arvicolinae

KW - Call-eliciting procedure

KW - Laboratory rodent

KW - USV

KW - Vocalization

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8a929a54-b21a-371c-8a65-596b840e8b45/

U2 - 10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115903

DO - 10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115903

M3 - Article

VL - 497

JO - Behavioural Brain Research

JF - Behavioural Brain Research

SN - 0166-4328

M1 - 115903

ER -