Cats are very cute animals and many people keep as pets. On the its face grows a few strands of whiskers, but did you know the function of cats whiskers? The whiskers on every cats have different unique patterns one to another, like a human fingerprint.
The whiskers on all cats have the same functionality as the most important sensory mechanism. The
importance of cats whiskers lies in the fact that they are rooted in
the follicle surrounded by muscle tissue that was very rich in nerve cells and
sensory cells. Nerve cells in the roots is then connected to a specific area of the cats brain.
The damage of cat's whiskers are not only cause discomfort, but also make them become confused and disoriented. Because the cat's whiskers work as environmental scanning systems.
Interestingly, cats do not need to touch objects with their whiskers to detect an object. The nerves at the base of whiskers even sensitive enough to detect small movements of air that thrilling the whiskers. They are so sensitive that even a cat can detect air movement in the room, such as the air flow around the furniture, allowing the cat knows there is an object there, even in dark condition.
Therefore, the scientific name for a cats whiskers is vibrissae indicating their sensitivity to vibrations in air currents. Cats that are blind will rely almost entirely on their whiskers to determine the direction and find the objects around them.
The fact also shows that the whiskers is important to the cat's balance. Without the whiskers, the cats will find difficulty to simply straightly walk, let alone when they ran. They also tend to misjudge distance when they would jump, so often slip and sometimes they would unfocused ran with to the objects direction.
Cats have some sort of defense mechanism to protect from the whiskers damage. When a cat is angry or will to fight, the whiskers will be pulled in to avoid damage from the fight. Cats also have the ability to regenerate the damaged whiskers, as long as the whiskers follicle is not damaged. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SEPTI | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 28032013]
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