Squirrels feel things deeply. They feel with their face. Their whiskers give them sensations that we humans can only imagine.
Those whiskers aren’t regular hairs. Besides being extra long, they’re also thicker, stiffer, and very sproingy. Their special follicles are set deeply into the skin, surrounded by pockets of blood that amplify the slightest touch.
These hairs have a special name, vibrissae. Pronounced like this:
How does it feel to be a squirrel?
A thicket of nerves carry information from the follicles of the vibrissae to the somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that makes sense out of touch. A squirrel needs only to contact something glancingly with the tip of a whisker. It must be like having many tiny fingers that feel the world in exquisite detail.
The longest and most noticeable vibrissae on squirrels are next to the nose. Slightly shorter, thinner vibrissae sprout from the middle of the cheek and above and below the eyes.
Squirrels also have vibrissae on their elbows.
Vibrissae help squirrels dash through tree tops and get around baffles at bird feeders. The longer vibrissae on the face are under conscious muscular control, and squirrels can use them for communication.
We don’t have any
Nearly all mammals have vibrissae except for humans and duck-billed platypuses. However, we humans do have some of the same muscles that work the vibrissae in other animals. We use them for smiling and pouting and when we’re squirrelly.
I love your thinking, your observations, your footnotes/references, and your writing. Thank you, deeply.
Yes, I agree that it is amazing all other mammals have vibrissae, except humans? Interesting that humans have developed other modes of figuring out our surroundings....