Rodents May Have a "Jedi" Trick to Supercharge Their Sense of Smell

"It almost seems like magic."

Jedi Nose Tricks

A specialist in the biology of sound has made an incredible observation about the "Jedi" smell-powers of mice and rats.

While depicted in cartoons and films as being squeaking little menaces, the sounds mice and rats make are actually ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that occur at way higher frequencies than the human ear can detect. According to new research from the University at Buffalo in New York, those sounds may be moving matter as well.

In a new study published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, UB bioacoustics expert Eduardo Mercado III suggests that beyond flirting and laughing with one another, those USVs may serve to stir up dust particles around rodents to supercharge their already-strong sense of smell.

Mercado cut his teeth studying much larger animals than mice: his background is in humpback whale song, which led to him being invited by colleagues to study rodent USVs.

Upon doing so, he immediately noticed something that could otherwise be easy to overlook: that immediately after making these uber-high-pitched sounds, mice sniff the air.

"That could be a coincidence," he said in the statement, "or it might suggest the two are functionally related."

Squeak and Sniff

By stirring up the dust, rodents may, the researcher posits, be using their strong olfactory sense to decode the pheromones left behind by others who have come by and detect if they were friends or foes — a trick that made Mercado feel like he was "observing 'Jedi' rats."

If further study proves the bioacoustics expert's hunch correct, it could be a massive finding never before seen anywhere in the animal kingdom.

"This phenomenon has never been observed before, or I believe even suspected, in any animal," the researcher said. "They're creating new pathways of information by manipulating their environment and controlling the molecular interactions of particles around them."

In the meantime, Mercado is still apparently tripping out about what he found.

"It almost seems like magic," he said.

More on mice: Scientists Use Wild Trick to Create Transparent Mice Where You Can See Their Internal Organs, Like a Clear 90s Nintendo