Why do cats have whiskers?

Question

Why do cats have whiskers?

Answer 1

to keep there balance.

Answer 2

A cat's whiskers are sensory organs and serve several purposes as such. They are very sensitive, being rooted around three times deeper in the skin than ordinary hairs, and being connected to many nerve-endings. They are able to detect minute changes in air currents, helping the cat find its way in the dark (though cats have excellent night vision, even they need some light to see, though it's a much smaller amount than we require).

The main purpose of the whiskers, however, is thought to be related to helping the cat find the correct place to bite on the neck of its prey. All cat species kill their prey with a bite to the throat, and if you watch them seize it by the neck, you will see the whiskers fan forward and touch the animal's throat, telling the predator where to sink its teeth in. This is very important, and biting into the neck bones could result in a broken tooth, and biting too low down could result in the prey escaping or being able to injure the cat. The cat needs to know just the right place to cling onto, so that it can press the prey's windpipe closed and suffocate it. This is why cats generally have longer whiskers than other large predators like wolves or hyenas - these animals tear open the belly of their prey, killing it by disembowelling, rather than going for the throat as cats do, and thus do not need to be so precise about where they bite.

An experiment was done with domestic cats in which a scientist covered the eyes of some cats, and released mice for them to catch (a bit of a cruel experiment, I must admit). Even with their eyes covered, the cats were able to find, catch and kill the mice. However, when the experiment was repeated after the cats' whiskers had been trimmed, they had a much harder time - their ears and noses helped them locate and catch the mice, but they simply seized whichever part of the prey was closest to them with their jaws, rather than making a precise bite to the neck as they previously had.

The notion of cats' whiskers being used to judge the distance of gaps is something of a myth. Most wild cat species are not in the habit of squeezing through tight gaps and would have little use for such a skill. All cats are easily able to squeeze through spaces far narrower than the span of their whiskers - a plump cat has no trouble using a cat door, even if its whiskers are longer than the width of that door. The size of the cat is also not necessarily related to whisker length - one of my cats is very fat, and her whiskers are considerably shorter than those of another of my cats, who is much slimmer. The length of the whiskers doesn't really mean anything - it just varies naturally between individuals.

Answer 3

For measuring, sensing and balancing.

Answer 4

They serve as antennas to them ,to let them know it's o.k.to go around things and such//

Answer 5

I've heard mostly they have whiskers to measure/gauge what spaces they can and cannot fit into.  

Answer 6

Agree with what others wrote. Measuring, sensing, balancing.