Curtin University researchers have captured rare recordings of echidnas cooing, grunting and making a range of other sounds, but only during the breeding season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead author Dr Christine Cooper, from Curtin\u2019s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said there had been ongoing scientific debate around the ability of echidnas to vocalise as a way of communicating or if the sounds they make are simply sniffing noises related to breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe observed wild short-beaked echidnas at Dryandra National Park, near Narrogin, Western Australia, making cooing and grunting sounds, in addition to the wheezing and exhalation noises that the animals are known to make,\u201d Dr Cooper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur team managed to capture some of these sounds with hand-held microphones as well as a camera and microphone left unattended at the entrance to a cave popular with echidnas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCareful analysis of those cooing and grunting sounds showed echidnas are capable of vocalising, aligning them with most other mammals in their use of acoustic communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe echidnas made the sounds when they were alone or with another echidna, however these sounds were made only rarely, and all the vocalisations recorded occurred exclusively during the breeding season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, although we don\u2019t know the purpose or understand the meaning of the short-beaked echidna\u2019s grunting and cooing, we have only heard them from adult animals during the breeding season, suggesting echidnas only find their voice when reproductively active.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Cooper said the sound recordings, along with previously reported vocalisations made by another egg-laying mammal, or monotreme, the platypus, helped resolve the scientific debate around the evolutionary timeline of when early mammals began communicating through sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf both monotremes and other mammals vocalise, this suggests that the common ancestor of these two evolutionary lineages could also vocalise,\u201d Dr Cooper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile other forms of communication, such as vibrational and chemical signals, are known to have appeared much earlier, our findings confirm that acoustic communication using sound likely developed 100 to 200 million years ago and before monotremes diverged from other mammals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published in Journal of Zoology, the research is titled \u2018Sound production by the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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