page_title: Whisking in animals
hierarchical_section_title: Whisking in animals
caption_attribution_description: English: A close up of the noses and whiskers of two white rats.
context_page_description: Whisking is a behaviour in which the facial whiskers 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.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: Rats using their mystacial vibrissae to perform whisking
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