Acoustic communication mediates many types of social interactions; however, few studies have investigated whether courtship vocalizations contain distinctive individual signatures necessary for individual recognition. Male house mice, Mus musculus, produce spectrally complex ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during courtship and mating, which appear to attract females and increase male reproductive success. Our goals were to (1) describe quantitative and qualitative changes in the vocalizations of wild-derived male house mice, M. m. musculus, induced by a female odour stimulus; (2) measure individual variation and consistency in male USV emission over time; (3) test whether the variation in USVs is greater between than within individuals; and (4) identify individual signatures in spectrotemporal features using univariate statistics, multivariate models and machine learning methods. We recorded males once per week for 3 weeks, used an automated method (A-MUD) to detect USVs, and manually classified them into distinct syllables. We found that most males did not vocalize until they encountered female scent, and then most males dramatically increased the number and the types of different vocalizations (repertoire size and composition). Male USVs showed high interindividual variation and most showed intraindividual consistency, and we found greater inter- than intraindividual variation for both USV count and repertoire size. Male USVs contained individual signatures in most spectrotemporal features, regardless of the method of analysis. Males sometimes produced few, if any, vocalizations when presented with female scent, but consistent nonvocalizers were rare. Our study provides the first evidence that individual signatures in USVs of male house mice are stable over time and across recording trials, although studies are still needed to investigate repeatability across social contexts and to test whether USVs mediate individual recognition.

中文翻译：

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雄性家鼠的超声波求爱发声包含不同的个体特征

声学传播调解多种类型的社会互动；然而，很少有研究调查求偶发声是否包含个体识别所需的独特个体特征。雄性家鼠 Mus musculus 在求偶和交配期间会产生光谱复杂的超声波发声 (USV)，这似乎可以吸引雌性并增加雄性繁殖成功率。我们的目标是 (1) 描述野生雄性家鼠 M. m. 发声的数量和质量变化。肌肉，由女性气味刺激诱发；(2) 随时间测量雄性 USV 发射的个体变异和一致性；(3) 检验 USV 的变异是否大于个体之间的变异；(4) 使用单变量统计识别光谱时间特征中的个体特征，多元模型和机器学习方法。我们每周记录一次雄性，持续 3 周，使用自动方法 (A-MUD) 检测 USV，并手动将它们分类为不同的音节。我们发现大多数雄性直到遇到雌性气味才会发声，然后大多数雄性显着增加了不同发声的数量和类型（曲目大小和组成）。雄性 USV 表现出较高的个体间变异，并且大多数表现出个体内一致性，我们发现 USV 计数和曲目大小的个体间变异大于个体内变异。无论分析方法如何，雄性 USV 在大多数光谱时间特征中都包含个体特征。雄性在闻到雌性气味时有时会发出很少的声音（如果有的话），但一致的非发声者很少见。