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Marine mammals often forage in dark or turbid waters. Whereas
dolphins use echolocation under such conditions, pinnipeds apparentlylack this sensory ability. For seals hunting in the dark, onesource of
sensory information may consist of fish-generated watermovements,
which seals can detect with their highly sensitivewhiskers. Water
movements in the wake of fishes persist for severalminutes. Here we
show that blindfolded seals can use their whiskersto detect and
accurately follow hydrodynamic trails generatedby a miniature
submarine. This shows that hydrodynamic informationcan be used for
long-distance prey location.
1 Institut für Zoologie,
Universität Bonn, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
2 Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Allgemeine Zoologie
und Neurobiologie, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
dehnhardt{at}neurobiologie.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
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PNAS
103, 18891-18895
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J Neurophysiol
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Responses of Trigeminal Ganglion Neurons to the Radial Distance of Contact During Active Vibrissal Touch.
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B. P. Chagnaud, H. Bleckmann, and J. Engelmann (2006)
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209, 327-342
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Frequency-Dependent Processing in the Vibrissa Sensory System.
The hydrodynamic trails of Lepomis gibbosus (Centrarchidae), Colomesus psittacus (Tetraodontidae) and Thysochromis ansorgii (Cichlidae) investigated with scanning particle image velocimetry.
