by Lauren Todd

Created on: March 26, 2010

“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..” Whiskers are placed in songs and poems in a very romantic light. But, did you know that a cat’s whiskers are absolutely essential for survival? If a cat senses it’s prey in the dark through its whiskers, it reacts with ‘the precision of a mousetrap.”

Whiskers on a cat serve as so much more than making a cat look distinguished, though they do that, they are delicate sense organs, specifically designed for hunting, stalking and killing prey.

The cat feels air currents through them, and the cat’s whiskers move and this movement sends the message that objects are nearby and gives the cat, a sense of the shape and size of the object. You can test this yourself, just wave your hand back and forth by your cat’s whiskers and you will see them vibrate.

Whiskers are set in four rows and they are as individual as finger prints. Those above the mouth are arranged neatly on the face, twelve on either side of the cat’s nose. But did you know, that cat’s have additional whiskers, on the outer edges of the cheeks, above the eyes and even on the back part of the front legs? This is a common trait found in carnivores. It allows them to be able to cinch their prey with their forearms.

The whiskers have uncommon abilities too, such as the bottom two rows being able to move apart from the top two. Your cat’s natural sensory receptors enable it to identify even the slightest changes in its environment, to include, temperature, direction of the wind and air pressure.

Cats whiskers evolve in the womb, fully operative, while hearing and seeing organs are not yet functional. Besides the nose and ears, the whiskers are the sense organs used most throughout the cat’s life.

Another function of whiskers is space sensory perception. The whiskers spanning your cat’s face are roughly the same width as his body, so this enables him to determine whether or not he can fit through a space to pass through it.

Apart from being an amazing survival mechanism, your cat’s whiskers determine his mood. Whiskers are laid back when your cat is relaxing, forward and down, when he is affectionate and flattened back against his cheeks if he feels threatened.

Whiskers tell a lot about your feline friend but most importantly they act as nature’s armament, protecting your house cat, just like they have protected his ancestral feline cousins, throughout the centuries.

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