Department of Anthropology, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 95521, USA.
Biol Lett. 2012 Aug 23;8(4):508-11. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1149. Epub 2012 Feb 8.
Few mammals-cetaceans, domestic cats and select bats and rodents-can send and receive vocal signals contained within the ultrasonic domain, or pure ultrasound (greater than 20 kHz). Here, we use the auditory brainstem response (ABR) method to demonstrate that a species of nocturnal primate, the Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta), has a high-frequency limit of auditory sensitivity of ca 91 kHz. We also recorded a vocalization with a dominant frequency of 70 kHz. Such values are among the highest recorded for any terrestrial mammal, and a relatively extreme example of ultrasonic communication. For Philippine tarsiers, ultrasonic vocalizations might represent a private channel of communication that subverts detection by predators, prey and competitors, enhances energetic efficiency, or improves detection against low-frequency background noise.
少数哺乳动物——鲸目动物、家猫以及一些特定的蝙蝠和啮齿动物——能够发出和接收超声频段（大于 20 kHz）或纯超声的声音信号。在这里，我们利用听觉脑干反应（ABR）的方法，证明了一种夜间活动的灵长类动物——菲律宾眼镜猴（Tarsius syrichta）具有约 91 kHz 的高频听觉敏感度上限。我们还记录到一种主要频率为 70 kHz 的叫声。这些数值是所有陆地哺乳动物中记录到的最高值之一，是超声通讯的一个相对极端的例子。对于菲律宾眼镜猴来说，超声叫声可能代表了一种私密的通讯渠道，可以躲避捕食者、猎物和竞争者的察觉，提高能量效率，或改善对低频背景噪声的探测。
