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HandWiki. Whisking in Animals. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32598 (accessed on 17 September 2026).
HandWiki. Whisking in Animals. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32598. Accessed September 17, 2026.
HandWiki. "Whisking in Animals" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32598 (accessed September 17, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 03). Whisking in Animals. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/32598
HandWiki. "Whisking in Animals." Encyclopedia. Web. 03 November, 2022.
Whisking in Animals
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The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Biology:Whisking_in_animals

Whisking is a behaviour in which the facial whiskers (vibrissae) of an animal are repetitively and rapidly swept back and forth. This behaviour occurs particularly during locomotion and exploration. The whisking movements occur in bouts of variable duration, and at rates between 3 and 25 whisks/second. Movements of the whiskers are closely co-ordinated with those of the head and body, allowing the animal to locate interesting stimuli through whisker contact, then investigate them further using both the macrovibrissae and an array of shorter, non-actuated microvibrissae on the chin and lips. Whisking has been reported in a wide range of mammals, including two species of marsupial. Whisking contributes both to exploratory movements, which function to acquire sensory inputs, and to palpation movements, which are used in the discrimination of objects and in the control of spatial navigation.

marsupial vibrissae macrovibrissae

References

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  3. Wineski, L.E. (1983). "Movements of the cranial vibrissae in the Golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus)". Journal of Zoology 200 (2): 261–280. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1983.tb05788.x.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1469-7998.1983.tb05788.x
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  6. Dorfl, J (1982). "The musculature of the mystacial vibrissae of the white mouse". Journal of Anatomy 135 (Pt 1): 147–54. PMID 7130049.  http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1168137
  7. Hill, D.N.; Bermejo, R.; Zeigler, H.P.; Kleinfeld, D. (2008). "Biomechanics of the vibrissa motor plant in rat: Rhythmic whisking consists of triphasic neuromuscular activity". The Journal of Neuroscience 28 (13): 3438–3455. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5008-07.2008. PMID 18367610.  http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=6670594
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  9. Gao, P; Bermejo, R; Zeigler, HP (2001). "Whisker deafferentation and rodent whisking patterns: Behavioral evidence for a central pattern generator". The Journal of Neuroscience 21 (14): 5374–5380. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.21-14-05374.2001.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1523%2FJNEUROSCI.21-14-05374.2001
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  11. "Video of rat whisking". Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMHuMhEzGWI. Retrieved 2013-06-24. 
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  14. Knutsen, PM; Biess, A; Ahissar, E (2008). "Vibrissal Kinematics in 3D: Tight Coupling of Azimuth, Elevation, and Torsion across Different Whisking Modes". Neuron 59 (1): 35–42. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.05.013. PMID 18614027.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.neuron.2008.05.013
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