Why these furry male mammals sing with humanlike rhythm
Rock hyraxes get more mates—and have healthier offspring—when they can keep a solid beat, a new study says.
As the sun rises over the Dead Sea, male rock hyraxes in Israel creep out of their darkened burrows and begin to sing.
To the human ear, the notes sound like a cross between a hyena’s cackle and chalk screeching against a blackboard. But to the female rock hyraxes, each chorus is a power ballad echoing out through the gorge—and the more the males maintain rhythm, the more likely the females are to swoon.
Combining spectrogram analysis of rock hyrax courtship songs
with the results of many successive breeding seasons, scientists have shown for the first time that males who sing more frequently and best maintain rhythm also go on to father better-surviving offspring, according to a
