WHY ? is our endeavor to answerall the questions every little fry asks . Do you have a question ? Send it towhy@mentalfloss.com .
humanity do n’t have whiskers , but most other mammals do . These stringy hairs growing out of an beast ’s typeface , forehead , and sometimes leg have a fancy scientific name : vibrissae(Vi - BRISS - uh ) . From cat and dogs to rats and seal , animals use hairsbreadth to help them feel their agency and accompany their prey .
Not all animal have nifty eyesight , and some demand to be able-bodied to hunt and move at night when it ’s hard to see . Plus , animals with long snouts , like dogs , sometimes have problem check things that are ripe in front of their fully grown nose ! So for a lot of animals , whiskers are a little like fingerbreadth . We use our fingerbreadth to “ see ” in the shadow by feeling things around us . But other animate being brush , orwhisk , their whisker against objects to guide them , evaluate things , and feel food for thought .
Whiskers are n’t just hair . Where each whisker is rooted in the cutis are lots and lots of nerve cells . When the whisker affect something , these cheek cell send messages to the mastermind . It ’s awe-inspiring how much entropy an animal ’s brain acquire from the whiskers . Rats ’ face fungus aid them make genial maps of the earth around them . cachet apply their whiskers to sense the vibrations of a Pisces the Fishes moving in the water . Many brute employ whiskers to figure out whether or not they can suit through a tight outer space . sensory hair may await cute , but they also help beast survive .
Here ’s a funvideofrom the BBC about how cats use their hair to catch prey .
