Seals use their whiskers to track prey in deep ocean

Scientists analysed footage from small video cameras with infrared night-vision attached to the animals

Northern elephant seals have highly developed whiskers. Photo shows a weaned elephant seal during breeding season (February) at Año Nuevo State Park, CA, USA. Picture: Taiki Adachi

When they are in the deep, dark ocean, seals use their whiskers to track down their prey, a study has confirmed after observing the sea mammals in their natural habitat.

It’s hard for light to penetrate the gloom of the ocean’s depths, and animals have come up with a variety of adaptations in order to live and hunt there. Whales and dolphins, for example, use echolocation — the art of sending out clicky noises into the water and listening to their echo as they bounce off possible prey, to locate them. But deep-diving seals who don’t have those same acoustic projectors must have evolutionarily learned to deploy another sensory technique.