Auditory Discrimination in Gerbils

[lizzie51813]

www.nature.com/news/2007/071214/full/news.2007.379.html

Found this a few years ago when writing one of my neuro research papers. Thought I'd share.

Also, rodents are super intelligent in general! Rats and mice show altruistic behavior and signs of empathy and degus can be taught to use a tool. Ultrasonic vocalizations in rats that the human ear can't normally detect can be recorded using special equipment and analyzed as indicators of affective states. Rats actually make joyful vocalizations when being "tickled!" Rats also show signs of metacognition!

If you're interested in some of these studies look up Mason, Nadel, and Bartal, Knutson, Panksepp, Langford, Mogil...there are a lot of cool recent studies!

[ninestone]

Fascinating stuff! I read an article a little while ago that mice often "sing" but it is usually beyond the range of human hearing.

[rs]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16285832

This is a clip of a researcher tickling a rat. If it won't open properly, go to the site www.bbc.co.uk, and on their search tool (not Google), type in the words rats chirp.

[babywan19]

ooh ….. my gerbil Peanut used to laugh , i heard very quick squeaking coming from her cage, she lived alone as she was the last one let in the shop, I looked in and she was cleaning the soles of her feet which was tickly …… ha ha ha