Since the university News Center couldn't be bothered to link to the actual article:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105908
"Here, we propose that ultrasonic vocalizations may affect what rodents smell by altering the deposition of inhaled particles and that rodents coordinate active sniffing with sound production specifically to enhance reception of pheromones."
FWIW, the paper is "snippets" paywalled, and I didn't find it as a preprint or elsewhere, nor an author website.
so.Rats have,tuned olfactory nasal tractor beams. use this knowledge to kill rats there must be a huge,evolutionary/survival advantage that would be difficult for a preditor to exploit under natural conditions here little rat,yesss,everything is as pheremonaly fine as we can make it,closer little rat,endorphins await,trusssst us
This is wild; I like how one of the lead scientists used their background in another discipline (humpback whales) to help uncover this discovery about mice and USVs.