Ok, so this appears to be quite a mystery. Me and my girlfriend have 2 Guinea Pigs, 1 male and 1 female.
My girlfriend once picked up the female one and took her outside into our garden. The Guinea got scared for some unknown reason and jumped out of my girlfriend's arms and fell down hard.. That night, the female Guinea woke us up with some very strange sounds. She sounded like a chirping bird.
Since then, she sometimes repeats these sounds (most often at night, but not always). Mostly, we are puzzled as to why as there is often no apparent reason for her sounds. Also, when she makes the sounds, she appears to be in a trance-like state, making no movements at all.
Looking for the answer online I found many discussions on the subject like this one or this one. Mostly, the sounds (and the often mentioned trance like behavior) appear to be interpreted as either (1) alarm sounds, (2) loneliness sounds or (3) happiness sounds.
There are also recordings of it one Youtube, like this one.
What I was wondering:
Does anybody know about some actual research that has been committed on this subject? If so, what were the results?
I'm just so very curious to find out!