YOUR CAT HAS WHISKERS ON IT'S LEGS!

The whiskers on a cat's face are so iconic that “the cat's whiskers” became a saying for something brilliant. Veterinarians call them vibrissae (from the Latin vibrare, “to vibrate”), and your cat has four sets on its face:

1. Mystacial vibrissae: the large ones on the upper lip, fanning out in neat rows from near the nose.

2. Superciliary vibrissae: just above the eyes.

3. Genal vibrissae: a few, set towards the back of the cheeks.

4. Mandibular vibrissae: sprouting from under the centre of the chin.

The fifth set is easy to miss: the carpal vibrissae, on the backs of the front legs, just above the paws.

So why would a cat have whiskers on its legs?

Cats can't focus well on things very close to their face. When they're hunting, or have caught something, the carpal vibrissae are thought to help them detect the position and movement of prey close to their front legs.

They're tucked out of sight, as hidden from us as they are from prey. But now that we know they're there, we can imagine what they might be sensing when those front legs reach out and hold on to us.

-Dr Stuart