Vocal recognition of partners by female prairie voles.

ABSTRACT: Recognizing conspecifics is vital for differentiating mates, offspring, and social threats. Individual recognition is often reliant upon chemical or visual cues but can also be facilitated by vocal signatures in some species. In common laboratory rodents, playback studies have uncovered communicative functions of vocalizations, but scant behavioral evidence exists for individual vocal recognition. Here, we find that the socially monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) emits behavior-dependent vocalizations that can communicate individual identity. Vocalizations of individual males change after bonding with a female; however, acoustic variation across individuals is greater than within-individual variation. Critically, females behaviorally discriminate their partner's vocaliza

SUBMITTER: Warren MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11803217 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature