ArticleJournal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology2020
Pinnipeds orient and control their whiskers: a study on Pacific walrus, California sea lion and Harbor seal.
Article in Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Describing the whiskers of a semi-aquatic caniform: the Eurasian Otter (Journal of mammalogy · 2026Article
- Head and Whisker Behaviours Observed During Foraging in Northern Elephant Seals (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Synapsids and sensitivity: Broad survey of tetrapod trigeminal canal morphology supports an evolutionary trend of increasing facial tactile specialization in the mammal lineage.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Soft bionic actuation explains the functional role of whisking in seal whisker sensing.Npj flexible electronics · 2026Article
- Can we study whisker movements to gain insights into the natural sensory behaviours of mammals?The Journal of physiology · 2025Review
- A Review of the Application of Seal Whiskers in Vortex-Induced Vibration Suppression and Bionic Sensor Research.Micromachines · 2025Review
- Describing the musculature of mystacial pads in harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) using diceCT.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Supplemental vibrissal extensions as an alternative to improve the tactile sensitivity of blind dogs - a preliminary approach investigation.Veterinary research communications · 2024Article
- Article
- Fossil brains provide evidence of underwater feeding in early seals.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Sea lions could use multilateration localization for object tracking as tested with bio-inspired whisker arrays.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- California sea lions employ task-specific strategies for active touch sensing.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Whisker touch is an active sensory system. Previous studies in Pinnipeds have adopted relatively stationary tasks to judge tactile sensitivity, which may not accurately promote natural whisker movements and behaviours. This study developed a novel feeding task, termed fish sweeping to encourage whisker movements. Head and whisker movements were tracked from video footage in Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) and Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). All species oriented their head towards the moving fish target and moved their whiskers during the task. Some species also engaged in whisker control behaviours, including head-turning asymmetry in the Pacific walrus, and contact-induced asymmetry in the Pacific walrus and California sea lion: behaviours that have only previously been observed in terrestrial mammals. This study confirms that Pinnipeds should be thought of as whisker specialists, and that whisker control (movement and positioning) is an important aspect of touch sensing in these animals, especially in sea lions and walruses. That the California sea lion controls whisker movement in relation to an object, and also had large values of whisker amplitude, spread and asymmetry, suggests that California sea lions are a promising model with which to further explore active touch sensing.
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