Looking for the Next American Hyrax? Thursday, June 28, 2012
Audience-loving animals express multiple traits through their
songs, say TAU researchers If popular karaoke bars and the long
audition lines for American Idol demonstrate anything, it's that
people like to express themselves through song — and the bigger
the audience, the better. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University
have found the same trait in small, rodent-like mammals called
hyraxes, indigenous to Africa and the Middle East. According to
Prof. Eli Geffen and PhD candidate Amiyaal Ilany of TAU's
Department of Zoology, hyrax vocalizations or "songs" go a long
way towards communicating the singer's unique identity. Each one
has unique songs that communicate a variety of information such
as the singer's age, social rank, hormone levels, and size. And
preliminary data suggests that the hyraxes prefer to sing when
they have a more alert audience, taking the opportunity to
promote themselves. Understanding the function of the hyrax song
will shed new