News Animals

Singing mice puff up air sacs to make their sweet songs

Unlike other animals, these mice use inflatable throat sacs to produce sound, not just shape it

A brown mouse stands upright with its mouth open against a backdrop of wood chips and blurred green foliage.

Singing mice (one shown) use an inflatable sac in their airway to create their dramatic, whistling songs.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

By Jake Buehler

Musically inclined mice inflate their throats like balloons to sing their whistling tunes.

The rodential aria is produced by inflatable air sacs in the mice’s airway, researchers report May 6 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.