{"id":21001,"date":"2022-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=21001"},"modified":"2022-10-21T12:01:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T10:01:27","slug":"rhythm-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/10\/20\/rhythm-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhythm of love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Male hyraxes that sing in the strictest tempo get females\u2019 pulses racing <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Rock hyraxes live through most of Africa as well as on the coast of the Arabian peninsula<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

MAMMALS BELLOW, ROAR, SQUEAL, snort and bark, but few could be said to sing. With a handful of notable exceptions \u2013 gibbons, indri lemurs, whales and hyraxes \u2013 singing is for the birds. <\/p>\n\n

New research shows that, in the case of singing male hyraxes, they have rhythm, too. And the more rhythmically precise their song, the more offspring they produce. <\/p>\n\n

Rock hyraxes, also known as rock rabbits or dassies, are no nightingales. The vocalisations they broadcast during the mating season \u2013 aharsh combination of grunts, barks and squeaks \u2013 are classed as songs due to their complexity. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Vlad Demartsev led the rock hyrax study <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

\u201cThe song is pretty unique for a mammal,\u201d says Vlad Demartsev, lead author of the new study published in the Journal <\/em>of <\/em>Animal <\/em>Ecology. <\/em>\u201cIt\u2019s very long and is structured into bouts. They make a sequence of sounds and then pause for a second and start again \u2013 pause, start, pause, start and so on for five or six minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Working on hyraxes in the deserts of eastern Israel, Demartsev and his colleagues analysed the time intervals between neighbouring notes within each bout. \u201cThey are almost identical \u2013 very precise,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they start slow, they remain slow for the rest of the bout. And if they start fast, they stay fast, until finally they reach a complex and climactic ending.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

And the degree of rhythmic consistency seems to indicate a male\u2019s attractiveness to females, as the males that kept tempo most precisely went on to father the most offspring. \u201cRhythmic display could be a reflection of a male\u2019s quality because it requires precise muscle control and coordination,\u201d says Demartsev, who is based at Germany\u2019s University of Konstanz.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The findings may also have implications for the origins of human music. One theory goes that rhythmic components of songs evolve to allow synchronisation between individuals who sing together in chorus \u2013 in the duets of gibbons, for instance. <\/p>\n\n

But the hyrax work suggests that it can also arise in solo performers advertising their quality to potential mates.<\/p>\n\n

Stuart Blackman <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Photos: VLAD: GRIGORY KIRILI ; HYRAX: ALAMY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Male hyraxes that sing in the strictest tempo get females\u2019 pulses racing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"14","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"14","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_14-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_14-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"November-2022-14-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-14-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087237||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087237||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-21T09:04:11Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"cb27a45f-363e-489d-89dc-b776b529ec74","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-21T10:01:34Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AyyekXzY-SJ2J3Ld2tSnsdA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\""},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-scaled.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-scaled.jpg",2560,2230,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-300x261.jpg",300,261,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-768x669.jpg",768,669,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-1024x892.jpg",800,697,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-1536x1338.jpg",1536,1338,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/DH3E0D_cmyk-2048x1784.jpg",2048,1784,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Male hyraxes that sing in the strictest tempo get females\u2019 pulses racing","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21001"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21392,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21001\/revisions\/21392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}