So apparently a wider variety of animals than we might expect actually sing what can technically be termed songs. (Songs are longer than cries, contain a lot more syllables, and happen regularly.) The most surprising one for me, as per that article linked to in brackets there, is MICE.
Yup, you read that right: Mice. Sing.
More specifically, male mice sing in order to find mates, and they do it at ultrasonic frequencies – too high for human hearing.
Of course, if you have fancy technology, you can translate the frequencies down a notch, enabling us all to actually hear what mouse song sounds like………
This actually links kind of fascinatingly with a Kickstarter I backed wwaaaaaayy back when for a composer who had apparently done a bunch of brain research into cats, and had determined that cats actually do really like music, it’s just that their concept of what constitutes ‘good’ music is really different from ours. Said composer composed first one and then a second album specifically for cats. Yo, looks like they now have a website where you can sample the music and read up on the science.
IDK. I think it’s utterly fascinating, really, that other species have concepts around ‘music’ as well, and the idea that different species appreciate different types of music is, I have to admit, really, really cool.
What do you think? What animal would you be MOST surprised to discover had a musical bent? And what do we all think naked mole rat music would sound like? :’D
(Probably backed with lots of scratchy scuffley earthy sounds, I guess :D)