FOCUS Question. What Whiskers Do

Transcription

1 FOCUS Book Whiskers Use the library or the Internet to learn about three animals with whiskers that were not in this book. Choose one animal and make a model of it. Draw a picture or use art supplies to make your model. On your model, show where the whiskers are. Then write about how the whiskers work and how they help this animal. Beyond the Book Observe a pet with whiskers. How does the animal use its whiskers to learn about the world?

2 Whiskers FOCUS Question How do animals use their whiskers? Structure and Function What Whiskers Do You might think whiskers make an animal look cute. But whiskers do much more than that! Whiskers are part of an animal s sense of touch. Whiskers help animals tell the size and shape of objects. Animals use them to tell how close something is. They can also feel moving air or water with their whiskers. Photo Credits: Front cover: Juniors Bildarchiv GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo; page 2 (top left): D_michael/Dreamstime.com; page 2 (bottom left): MattiaATH/iStock/Thinkstock; page 2 (right): Ralph Lee Hopkins/National Geographic Magazines/Getty Images; page 3 (left): imagebroker/alamy Stock Photo; page 3 (top right): M. Watson/ ardea.com; page 3 (bottom right): CreativeNature_nl/iStock/Thinkstock; page 4: Akimasa Harada/Moment/ Getty Images; page 5: Lindsay_Helms/iStock/Thinkstock; page 6: Tamara Bauer/Dreamstime.com; page 7: Ianthephotographer/iStock/Thinkstock; page 8 (top): Christian Zappel/imageBROKER/Getty Images; page 8 (bottom): Masa Ushioda/age fotostock/superstock; page 9 (top): LemonTreeImages/iStock/Thinkstock; page 9 (bottom): Benny J. Johnson/Science Source squirrel Whiskers Learning A Z Written by Cynthia Kennedy Henzel All rights reserved. 2 hippo seal

3 rabbit walrus shrew When something brushes the hair on your arms, you can feel it. Nerves in your skin send signals to your brain. Animal whiskers are different from hair. They are called vibrissae (vy-brih-see). Vibrissae grow from deeper below the skin than hair. They have many more nerves around them than hair does. People don t have vibrissae. Senses Whiskers 3 4 Whiskers for Mr. Whiskers Cats have whiskers on their face and front legs. They use their whiskers to tell the size and shape of things. Whiskers help cats know if they will fit into a small space. Cat whiskers can also sense moving air. Cats can feel air moving when they jump. They can also feel air moving when a mouse runs by. By feeling moving air, cats can judge how far away a landing spot is.

4 Never cut a cat s or dog s whiskers! Animals need their whiskers to gather information. Whiskers in the Dark Whiskers help rats live in dark places. Rats have many whiskers on their face that they can move back and forth. Whisking is when rats brush and tap something with their whiskers. A rat can feel a lot more with its whiskers than people feel with their fingers! Whiskers for Spot Dogs have whiskers on their face, too. Their whiskers help them tell the size and shape of things. They can also tell if something is moving nearby. Most dogs have a long snout. They can t see something if it s right under their nose! Whiskers help them identify things that are close to their head. Senses Whiskers 5 6 Rats can hear with their whiskers! Sounds make the whiskers vibrate, or shake. The rat senses what the sound was.

5 Whiskers in the Water Harbor seals have many long whiskers on their face. When a tasty fish swims by, their whiskers feel the water moving. Seals can tell the size and shape of the fish before they see it. They can also tell which direction the fish is moving. Manatees have whiskers on their whole body! They use their whiskers to feel moving water. They can tell which way the current is moving in the shallow water where they live. They can also bend the whiskers near their mouth. These whiskers help manatees hold on to sea grass as they eat! Senses Whiskers 7 8

6 Just a Beard Some people call the hair on a person s face whiskers. But beards are just hair, not vibrissae. They don t give people much information. People mostly use their skin to sense touch. Many other animals also use their whiskers to learn about the world around them. Shrewbot is a robot that makes maps. It has whiskers like a shrew does. It uses them to find its way around. whiskers Write or draw your answers on separate paper. Use details from the book to support each answer. 1 What are vibrissae? 2 How do whiskers help dogs that have a long snout? 3 How can seals tell the size and shape of a fish before they see or touch it? 4 Do you think trimming a man s beard would hurt his sense of touch? Explain your answer. FOCUS Question How do animals use their whiskers? Write about two ways that animals use their whiskers to learn about the world. Use examples you read about in the book. Senses Whiskers 9 10