Student: Michelle Boyles and Margaret Cunningham
Mentor: Professor Thomas Terleph
Major: Biology

The Prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) is a monogamous rodent species with biparental care. Infant prairie voles emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), likely to facilitate approach and retrieval by parents of both sexes. Little is known about the spectral and temporal characteristics of these USVs, or how they develop with age. In order to describe USV ontogeny, we recorded prairie vole pups at ages 2-10 days, produced spectrograms of their calls, and made a number of spectral and temporal measures. When isolated from its parents, a pup generally repeats a short ultrasonic call. Most calls consist of a single syllable, but some contain 2 or 3 distinct syllables types, separated by short periods of silence or rapid frequency changes.  Preliminary data suggest that at the youngest age tested (2 days ± 12 hours), a number of call characteristics varied as a function of pup weight. Heavier pups produced calls of longer duration, and the 1st syllable of each call had a greater number of harmonics and a lower fundamental frequency than those of lighter pups. These characteristics of the USV may serve to signal a pup’s condition to its parents, potentially influencing parental responses at a time in life when a pup relies heavily upon care.

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