Seals "see" with whiskers

"Read" the ripples of fish and objects in the water
The Henry trained in identifying different wave yellow ball touches the wall of the glass box, thus alerting the scientists that something has changed
Berlin:

Valuable for the detection of food - not only - are the whiskers of seals, and according to a new German study, help to distinguish different shapes and sizes of fish and objects in the water.
Experts at the University of Rostock, held a series of experiments with the help of a 12-year seal named Henry. In order to study how they react when the cute mammals swimming in deep dark waters and without optikouakoustika stimuli, closed their eyes and ears of Henry with a special mask and headset.
Then the researchers put the Henry trained to swim to a specially designated area within a pool. There, placed several oars in the water and waved allowing Henry to take the undulations of the objects with the whiskers.

Whiskers eyes like ...
Henry learned to be a ball touches the walls of the box, where perceived different experiments.
Much to their surprise, researchers found that Henry was able to distinguish objects of whiskers size only 3.6 cm, and it was possible to distinguish the difference between a rectangular or triangular paddle or whether the surface was undulating or flat.
It seemed that even seals can identify and pursue passing fish, even 35 seconds after their passage.
The German scientists concluded that the whiskers of the sea mammals can "read" the waves generated around various objects or other organisms in the water, so they can know the size and shape.
As the researcher Wolf Hanko this could be particularly useful for these mammals once hunted primarily in dark waters. "This could be very important for a seal, which must decide instantly whether the fish or object that has just passed is interesting to follow it," he said.

Posted by 9MOHAMED0 on Monday, May 23, 2011