Vibrissal sensing in mammals in a changing world.
Grant RA
Urban Ecology
Mammals that visit your garden — from hedgehogs to mice to shrews — rely on whisker sensing to navigate, hunt, and survive, and the plants, chemicals, and noise you introduce to your outdoor space may be quietly impairing their ability to do so.
Many animals, like cats, rats, and seals, use their whiskers as incredibly sensitive tools to feel the world around them. This article looks at how a changing environment — new plant species, chemical pollutants, loud noise, and shifting wind or water patterns — can mess with how those whiskers work, from how they grow to how the brain processes what they feel. Scientists are calling for more research to understand just how vulnerable these sensory systems are as our world changes faster and faster.
Key Findings
Exposure to new plant species, pathogens, and environmental chemicals can directly affect whisker growth, sensitivity, and neural signal processing in mammals.
Acoustic noise and changes in air or water flow can cause whisker vibrations that may mask critical sensory signals such as prey detection cues, though this has not yet been directly studied.
Whisker sensing shows some resilience to environmental change — for example, animals can use whiskers to regulate responses to warm temperatures — but many environmental impacts remain poorly characterized.
chevron_right Technical Summary
This review examines how environmental changes — pollution, noise, invasive plants, and altered airflow — affect the whisker-based sensory systems of mammals. While whiskers are remarkably resilient in some conditions, many environmental stressors disrupt how animals grow, use, and process signals through their whiskers.
Abstract Preview
Mammalian vibrissae are part of a specialised, sensitive and precise sensory system. They are involved in multimodal reception, including vibrotactile and electric sensing, which might make them pa...
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