Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2012 - 17:11

Hi Alex,

It's Julia from the professional development course. I have a question that I wanted to post here. I know that hair is analyzed for diet information, as are whiskers. With fur, it is shed each year, so you know you have a year's worth of diet information, and you can pretty much date the diet closely. But whiskers last much longer. Is it known how long they last before they are shed/lost? Is it a variable length of time? Assuming it is not known exactly, how do you date the diet information that is gotten from a whisker? Thanks!

Alex Eilers

Hi Julia!You all are asking some great questions!
Linnea - Dr. Burn's graduate student provided the answer to you question.
In whiskers, they grow continuously (unlike the fur), so you get diet data for the length of time the whisker has been growing. The crux of that question is - how long do whiskers grow/when are they shed. And that, we don't know... People think (and some data shows this) whiskers are shed each year (although we aren't sure when - because we don't see it while they are molting). However, there is a group in Chile (I think) with a captive leopard seal, they have suggested, at least in the case of the leopard seal, whiskers are not shed, and grow over the entire life of the seal.
Hope this helps.
Best - Alex