Whiskers at Work - Science Stories

Cats couldn’t manage without their wonderful whiskers!

When your cat darts through a fence hole barely wider than its body, whiskers are at work. When your cat moves flawlessly through a dark room, whiskers are at work. And when it leaps into a bush or pounces on a mouse, whiskers are at work.

A cat’s whiskers are important sense organs. These thick, stiff hairs grow on the upper lip, on both cheeks, above the eyes, under the chin, and on the elbows of the forelegs. Each whisker is rooted in a bundle of nerves beneath the cat’s skin. When a whisker is touched, the nerves tell the brain about it.

Each set of whiskers on your cat’s body helps it in special ways. The whiskers on its lip and cheeks stick out to both sides and to the front, extending the cat’s touch beyond its body. Your cat uses these whiskers to judge the size of an opening. If the opening is wide enough for the whiskers to fit through, the cat knows it can slip through, too—unless it’s a fat cat whose sides have outgrown its whiskers.

Your cat’s whiskers also guide it through the dark. Although a cat can see in light six times dimmer than you can, it cannot see in total darkness. Its whiskers, however, can feel in the dark.

Acting like an insect’s antennae, whiskers feel even the slightest vibrations in the air. That means that the whiskers do not have to touch an object for a cat to know it is there. Your cat can sense a wall, a sofa, or a bed because these objects cut off air vibrations. And a cat in the wild can sense its way on the darkest night, hunting for prey.

Your cat’s food probably comes from a supermarket, but a cat is designed by nature to catch its own food. Like its wild ancestors, your cat has chin whiskers to feel food on the ground that it may not see. And your cat has whiskers on its front elbows to help it position a mouse or other prey for a quick kill. These whiskers also signal if the mouse is about to escape.

The whiskers above your cat’s eyes trigger a blinking reflex. If an object such as a twig brushes these whiskers, your cat will blink, and its eyes will be protected from injury. You can see this for yourself by gently brushing the whiskers with a fingertip.

Your cat’s whiskers are always at work. Sensing, guiding, and protecting, whiskers help your pet whisk happily through its days and nights.

Mice Need Whiskers, Too

A cat’s whiskers help it catch mice. But a mouse’s whiskers sometimes help it get away.

A mouse uses its super feelers to explore the area where it lives and to find good hiding places. It knows where to go when it smells, hears, or sees a cat.

And whiskers help mice run fast through tight places—when one wrong step could make a mouse into a meal.