Facial vibrissae pinniped rhinal

CiteScore 0. Summary: Seals and sea lions are well-oriented in their habitat, the coastal regions and oceans, and are, moreover, successful hunters. During their movements between haul-out places and foraging grounds as well as during foraging, the sensory systems of seals and sea lions provide useful information, although the animals, and thus their sensory systems, face considerable challenges in their habitat and due to their amphibious lifestyle. We hereby focus on the senses of harbor seals. Harbor seals turned into a model organism regarding the sensory systems due to intensive sensory research of the last decades. In the second and third chapter, the sensory basics are put into the context of orientation, navigation, and foraging.

Curator: Wolf Hanke. Vibrissal touch is the sensory modality that enables animals to detect and analyse objects and to orient themselves using their vibrissae whiskers. Pinnipeds Pinnipedia are aquatic carnivores of the families Phocidae true seals , Otariidae eared seals , and Odobenidae walruses. All pinnipeds possess prominent vibrissae whiskers in the facial region Figure 1. The vibrissae of pinnipeds are mostly located on the snout mystacial vibrissae , but also above the eyes supraorbital or superciliary vibrissae and above the nares rhinal vibrissae, only in true seals.

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The most prominent and numerous vibrissae are mystacial whiskers. Beaded mystacial whiskers diagnose phocids excluding monk, bearded, Ross, and leopard seals. The primitive smooth condition is seen in otariids and the walrus.