Sea lions use their whiskers for “touch”
Recommended for Preparatory Grades
- Sea lions use their whiskers for “touch”
- As humans, we use our highly sensitive fingertips to feel an object’s size, texture, softness and shape. When we use our smartphones, our fingertips play a crucial role in helping us use the apps and enabling us to use a phone’s biometric and security features. Now, biologists now think sea lions use their whiskers for touch.
- Biologists have long studied mice and rats to figure out how signals from the whiskers are understood in the brain. We have begun to realise that whiskers in animals can also be moved in a “to-fro” motion just like human hands. Whether the whiskers’ movements in animals can be used for different tasks is an exciting area for scientists.
- In a recent study, biologists trained a California sea lion named “Lo” to do a few tests using its whiskers. Lo’s tasks included – to find a medium-textured, fish-shaped object, medium-sized fish and a visual task of finding a grey fish. After carefully studying the video data, the biologists concluded that Lo made task-specific movements with its whiskers.
- Biologists have found other sea lions using the same strategies as Lo. This makes them think that this trait might be common amongst California sea lions.
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