ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2023
By a whisker: the sensory role of vibrissae in hovering flight in nectarivorous bats.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Convergent mechanisms, divergent strategies: a comparison of nectar intake between a generalist and a specialist bat species.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Vibrissal sensing in mammals in a changing world.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Review
- Greater mouse-tailed bats use their tail as a tactile sensor when navigating backwards.iScience · 2025Article
- Making sense of vertebrate senses from a neural crest and cranial placode evo-devo perspective.Trends in neurosciences · 2025Review
- Ventral wing hairs provide tactile feedback for aerial prey capture in the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2024Article
- By a whisker: the sensory role of vibrissae in hovering flight in nectarivorous bats.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Whiskers are important tactile structures widely used across mammals for a variety of sensory functions, but it is not known how bats-representing about a fifth of all extant mammal species-use them. Nectar-eating bats typically have long vibrissae (long, stiff hairs) arranged in a forward-facing brush-like formation that is not present in most non-nectarivorous bats. They also commonly use a unique flight strategy to access their food-hovering flight. Here we investigated whether these species use their vibrissae to optimize their feeding by assisting fine flight control. We used behavioural experiments to test if bats' flight trajectory into the flower changed after vibrissa removal, and phylogenetic comparative methods to test whether vibrissa length is related to nectarivory. We found that bat flight trajectory was altered after vibrissae removal and that nectarivorous bats possess longer vibrissae than non-nectivorous species, providing evidence of an additional source of information in bats' diverse sensory toolkit.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.