ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Seal whisker-inspired fully printed MEMS flow sensor via micron-scale soft material additive manufacturing.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2026Article
- 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
- Vibrissal sensing in mammals in a changing world.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Review
- 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
- Rare Record of Albinism in a New Zealand Fur Seal (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Splicing factor Sf3b1 facilitates maintenance of neuronal dendrites by modulating mitochondrial health.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2025Article
- A Review of the Application of Seal Whiskers in Vortex-Induced Vibration Suppression and Bionic Sensor Research.Micromachines · 2025Review
- Wonders of Harbor and Grey Seal Whiskers: Morphology, Natural Frequencies, and 3D Modeling.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Describing the musculature of mystacial pads in harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) using diceCT.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Linking ringed seal foraging behaviour to environmental variability.Movement ecology · 2025Article
- Making sense of vertebrate senses from a neural crest and cranial placode evo-devo perspective.Trends in neurosciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Large sensory volumes enable Southern elephant seals to exploit sparse deep-sea prey.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Fossil brains provide evidence of underwater feeding in early seals.Communications biology · 2023Article
- The PROUST hypothesis: the embodiment of olfactory cognition.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- A forgotten element of the blue economy: marine biomimetics and inspiration from the deep sea.PNAS nexus · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The darkness of the deep ocean limits the vision of diving predators, except when prey emit bioluminescence. It is hypothesized that deep-diving seals rely on highly developed whiskers to locate their prey. However, if and how seals use their whiskers while foraging in natural conditions remains unknown. We used animal-borne tags to show that free-ranging elephant seals use their whiskers for hydrodynamic prey sensing. Small, cheek-mounted video loggers documented seals actively protracting their whiskers in front of their mouths with rhythmic whisker movement, like terrestrial mammals exploring their environment. Seals focused their sensing effort at deep foraging depths, performing prolonged whisker protraction to detect, pursue, and capture prey. Feeding-event recorders with light sensors demonstrated that bioluminescence contributed to only about 20% of overall foraging success, confirming that whiskers play the primary role in sensing prey. Accordingly, visual prey detection complemented and enhanced prey capture. The whiskers' role highlights an evolutionary alternative to echolocation for adapting to the extreme dark of the deep ocean environment, revealing how sensory abilities shape foraging niche segregation in deep-diving mammals. Mammals typically have mobile facial whiskers, and our study reveals the significant function of whiskers in the natural foraging behavior of a marine predator. We demonstrate the importance of field-based sensory studies incorporating multimodality to better understand how multiple sensory systems are complementary in shaping the foraging success of predators.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.