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Got rhythm? Male rock hyraxes that keep the beat have breeding success

The little mammals are accomplished vocalists — but some males are more accomplished than others.
Two rock hyrax 'kiss' while sitting on a grey rock

Two rock hyraxes ‘kiss’. Males with a rhythmic courtship song father more offspring that reach their first birthday. Credit: Lilly/imageBROKER/Shutterstock

Male rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis), which are rabbit-sized mammals, sing to woo their mates. Vlad Demartsev at the University of Konstanz in Germany and his colleagues had noticed that their songs seemed to have a beat. The typical hyrax song has an ‘isochronous’ rhythm, which means that notes are spaced at regular intervals. (Some human songs are isochronous too, although we tend to use syncopation, or off-beat elements, to build tension and add interest.)

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Nature 609, 878 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02990-4

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 21 September 2022: An earlier version of this article included a picture of animals that could not be definitively identified as rock hyraxes.

References

  1. Demartsev, V., Haddas-Sasson, M., Ilany, A., Koren, L. & Geffen, E. J. Anim. Ecol. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13801 (2022).

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