Meet the whistling mice that use inflatable air sacs to sing

Phys · May 12, 2026 · 538 words · By Paul Arnold

The article describes a scientific study on Alston's singing mouse, detailing how the animal uses a ventral pouch and the cricothyroid muscle to produce whistle-like songs. The research, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, utilized 3D reconstructions and surgical ablations to understand the biomechanics of these vocalizations.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mice-inflatable-air-sacs.html

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Propaganda Score

confidence: 100%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

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8 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

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verified Verified 1

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“Alston's singing mouse (Scotinomys teguina) makes its music by puffing up an air sac in its throat.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm that Alston's singing mouse uses an air sac (ventral pouch) to produce its songs. This is mentioned in the Royal Society publication and related scientific summaries.

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web search NEUTRAL — Alston & Bird LLP is an American multinational law firm with over 900 lawyers in 13 offices [2] throughout the United States, Europe, and the UK. [3] The firm provides legal services to both domestic …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alston_&_Bird

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web search NEUTRAL — A space to grow your production? A prestigious new office? A space to live your life? Alston Construction Company deliver on all of these and more – on time, and to budget.
https://alstonco.com/

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web search NEUTRAL — Located in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, The Alston is one of Chicago’s most beautiful dining rooms featuring several cuts of wagyu and prime steaks paired with exquisitely presented French sauce…
https://thealston.com/

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“Alston's singing mice are small rodents native to the cloud forests of Mexico and Central America.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and multiple web sources confirm that Scotinomys teguina (Alston's singing mouse) is native to the cloud forests of Central America, specifically from Mexico to Panama.

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web search NEUTRAL — Alston's brown mouse, also called Alston's singing mouse, short-tailed singing mouse, or singing mouse, is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found in Central America, from Chiapas, M…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alston's_brown_mouse

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web search NEUTRAL — Alston’s singing mouse (Scotinomys teguina), a small rodent from the cloud forests of Central America, produces loud, elaborate songs humans can hear across a room. These mice can sing solo but often …
https://neurosciencenews.com/brain-wiring-speech-evolution-3…

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web search NEUTRAL — A singular mouse species found in the cloud forests of Central America boasts a musical repertoire of nearly 100 notes. But Scotinomys teguina , better known as Alston’s singing mouse, isn’t impressiv…
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-singing-mice-…

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“Samantha Smith, an integrative biologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and her colleagues performed a series of biological and biomechanical experiments detailed in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.”

CORROBORATED

The existence of the research paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B regarding the singing mouse's vocalizations is confirmed by multiple search results, including the Royal Society's own listings.

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web search NEUTRAL — The Royal Society provides a range of grant schemes to support the UK scientific community and foster collaboration between UK based and overseas scientists.
https://royalsociety.org/blog/2018/04/alstons-singing-mice/

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web search NEUTRAL — After smelling the urine of a female mouse, a male mouse starts to call to her using a complex string of utterances (depicted in the sonogram which shows fre...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS4Chf9yh8s

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web search NEUTRAL — Alston’s singing mice carry out complex vocalizations and even appear to converse politely with one another. The neural circuitry that makes this possible is simpler than researchers expected.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-singing-mice…

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“The researchers examined an enlarged air sac called the ventral pouch.”

CORROBORATED

The research specifically identifies the 'ventral pouch' as the enlarged air sac used for vocalization in these mice.

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“Air flowing through the larynx inflated the ventral pouch, producing a whistle-like sound.”

CORROBORATED

The evidence states that the singing mouse uses a whistle mechanism relying on the inflation of the ventral pouch via laryngeal airflow.

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web search NEUTRAL — The larynx (pl.: larynges or larynxes),[1] commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the top of the neck involved in respiration, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larynx

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web search NEUTRAL — Mice and rats have a specialized larynx that enables them to produce both low-frequency "audible" sounds, perhaps using vocal fold vibration, as well as distinct mechanisms that are thought to enable …
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32996145/

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web search NEUTRAL — tralaryngeal whistle to produce their advertisement songs, and that an expanded. ventral pouch may enable lower frequencies than laboratory mouse whistle-pro-. duced sounds. Variation in the laryngeal…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345100887_A_compara…

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“The cricothyroid muscle helped control the song's frequency by altering the shape and flow of the larynx.”

CORROBORATED

The research explicitly mentions that song frequency is controlled by the cricothyroid muscle action, among other factors.

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web search NEUTRAL — Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Landen Roupp. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-re…
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rouppla01.shtml

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web search NEUTRAL — San Francisco Giants beat Atlanta Braves (4-3). Jun 8, 2025, Attendance: 41026, Time of Game: 2:13. Visit Baseball-Reference.com for the complete box score, play-by-play, and win probability
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202506080.sh…

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web search NEUTRAL — Apr 2, 2024 · Los Angeles Dodgers beat San Francisco Giants (5-4). Apr 2, 2024, Attendance: 49365, Time of Game: 2:57. Visit Baseball-Reference.com for the complete box score, play-by-play, and win pr…
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN202404020.sh…

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“When the pouch could not inflate properly or when the muscle was damaged, the mice lost much of their normal vocal range.”

CORROBORATED

The evidence states that cricothyroid ablation (damage/removal) inhibited frequency modulation, confirming the muscle's role in the vocal range.

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web search NEUTRAL — The cricothyroid muscle is the only tensor muscle of the larynx aiding with phonation. It is innervated by the superior laryngeal nerve. Its action tilts the thyroid forward to help tense the vocal co…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricothyroid_muscle

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web search NEUTRAL — We found that singing mice use a whistle mechanism that uniquely relies on the inflation of an enlarged air sac called the ventral pouch. Song frequency can be controlled by pouch volume, airflow and …
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/293/2070/202…

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web search NEUTRAL — Whistle frequency can be controlled by 38 ventral pouch inflation, laryngeal airflow, and by cricothyroid muscle action. Cricothyroid 39 ablation inhibited frequency modulation in vivo, suggesting tha…
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.16.654575v1.…

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“Samantha Khouri Smith et al, Mechanisms and control of a novel vocalization: the singing mouse song is a whistle that depends on air sac inflation, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2026.0153”

VERIFIED

The title and journal (Proceedings of the Royal Society B) are confirmed. While the provided evidence snippet for the date '2026' is not explicitly detailed in the text (it lists Volume 293), the specific title and DOI match the research described.

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web search NEUTRAL — Mechanisms and control of a novel vocalization: the singing mouse song is a whistle that depends on air sac inflation.
https://evoldir.net/brian/journals/ProcB_TOC_May2026.html

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web search NEUTRAL — Mechanisms and control of a novel vocalization: the singing mouse song is a whistle that depends on air sac inflation.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/singing-mice-air-throat-…

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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.

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Meet the whistling mice that use inflatable air sacs to sing

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