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Welcome to KPassionate.
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I'm your host, KP -
a marine biologist with quite a lot of experience
working with marine mammals like sea otters.
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Last time on my channel
we kicked off a mini-series about animal senses,
starting with eyesight.
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This week we're taking a deeper dive into the sense
that scientists agree is the most intimate and intricate one that we have:
touch.
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(KP in clip: "Boop!") (Trainer: "Ohhh noo!")
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But before we do that,
this is your weekly reminder
to hit that 'like' and subscribe button,
head down to the descriptions below
if you want to know more about
the sources that we're using for this video.
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(KP in clip: "I just want to rub your belly! Just a belly rub")
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(KP in clip: "Thank you, good girl!")
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In my opening spiel,
I mentioned that the sense of touch
is the most developed of all of the five senses.
In fact, there is a significant body of research
that suggests that touch is vital to survival.
And one reason for that is pain.
Pain is an indicator that tells the person -
or the animal in this case -
that it's time to change direction.
(sea otter vocalizations) (laughing) (KP in background: "Jeez Louise")
It's the reason we pull our hand away
from something that's hot or sharp.
But it's not the only reason that touch is vital to life.
Touch is also a universal communicator.
Think about hugs, kisses, high fives, taps on the shoulder.
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(KP in clip: "High-five, good")
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and even negative communications like pushing, shoving, biting.
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Have you seen my previous videos
where I taught Joey the sea otter how to spin?
You might have noticed that when he gets frustrated with the behavior,
he tends to grab and attack the target pole.
(KP in clip: "Spin. Okay, yes.")
(water splashing noise)
(KP in clip: "No, oh my goodness")
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(KP in clip: "No grabbies! Okay") (chuckles)
(KP in clip: "You're a little out of control right now")
(water splashing sounds)
(KP in clip: "There's no need to panic, Joseph")
That's communication via touch.
He's showing me by biting and holding on to the target pole
that he's frustrated with that behavior.
(KP in clip: "You're alright, you got it, you got this")
(KP in clip: "No, no bities. No bities!")
In fact, touch is a primary means of communication across many animals.
One of my favorite examples of this is when Katmai
thought that I was trying to steal her ice treats in this clip.
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(KP in clip: "'Scuse me, 'scuse me miss?")
(KP in clip: "'Scuse me, 'scuse me, ma'am?")
Even though I was just trying to rub her belly.
It's okay, I didn't take it personally
because she does the exact same thing to Mak.
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(KP laughs)
(KP in clip: "That's rude! Oh my gosh, so rude, Katmai!") (laughing)
Humans have an extremely well-developed sense of touch.
So much so that in scientific communities,
humans are known as the touch experts.
But believe it or not, sea otters are even better.
Take a closer look at their paws.
They're extremely dexterous and just packed with nerve endings.
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(person in background: "Yeah, look at her-, her paws are perfect!")
(KP in clip: "I got a pretty good..[indistinct]")
That's because like we explained in our last video on sight,
which you can catch by clicking the link right up here,
aquatic animals tend to have pretty poor eyesight.
Especially at night or if the water is very murky or turbulent.
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So they have to rely on something other than vision to find their food.
And their food is usually things like clams, mussels, abalone.
Often buried under the ocean floor, not visible at all.
However, studies have shown that their prey consumption is extremely high.
This makes sense, after all they need to consume
about a quarter of their body weight every single day
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I'm going to cut to the chase and tell you
just how incredible a sea otter's sense of touch is.
There was a study that I've linked in the descriptions down below
that showed that sea otters' sense of touch
is just as powerful as humans,
but much faster at discriminating objects.
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(people laughing) (person in background: "That feels funny!")
The study involved an otter named Selkie.
The experiment essentially had Selkie reach into a window
and blind-touch two different textured items.
One object was smooth and the other very slightly rippled.
Then she had to choose the correct item.
If she chose correctly,
she was rewarded with a huge amount of clams and shrimp.
If she got it wrong,
she still got the occasional reward but it was just far less
than getting the correct answer.
Sort of like you can visualize when I was training Joey how to spin.
When he spun, he got a huge handful of fish.
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(KP in clip: "He's like I stole it in the first place, it doesn't really matter!")
(KP in clip: "Good boyyyyyy!") [high-pitched]
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(KP in clip: "Did it! Yes!")
And when he didn't do it correctly
but he was still being patient with me
I might give him one or two.
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(KP in clip: "Spin! Good")
(KP in clip: "Thank you for the calm-")
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They did the same experiment on humans
and on average, it took a human about two to three seconds
to discern the correct object.
But it took Selkie the sea otter just 100 milliseconds.
That's a fraction of a second.
It's practically instantaneous.
I'm quoting one of my cited sources here when I say that
"the sea otter responded about 30-fold faster than the human
regardless of difficulty level."
And that kinda makes sense.
If you're 50 feet below the surface of the ocean or 15 meters,
digging around in the bottom, it's cold, it's dark
you're trying to find as many clams as possible
before heading back up to the surface to have your snack,
you want to have a good sense of touch.
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(KP in clip: "She's just collecting little pieces of ice and jamming them in her pocket")
While not as scientific a test as the one that i just described to you,
I'm reminded of the time that I gave Kunik a brush enrichment item.
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(person in clip: "Is that you-")
Check out how curious she is.
You can actually see how stimulated she is by this simple enrichment item.
(KP in clip: "Goodness")
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(KP in clip: "This is furthering my suspicion that you've never had this before!")
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(KP: "Does it feel funny?!")
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(KP in clip: "What is it!")
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(KP in clip: "It feels funny!")
Sea otters also have another well-developed tactile form of sense:
their whiskers.
Can you put whiskers on me?
(DoubleAgentXV in background: "I can try")
Now I'm pretty excited to talk about whiskers
because we cannot touch on that
without talking about my favorite animal of all time,
the king of whiskers,
the walrus.
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(KP in clip: "Uh oh")
(walrus vocalization)
Whiskers is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to these types of animals.
They're actually known as vibrissae.
Each one has a blood supply
and thousands of nerve endings.
And they're called vibrissae
because they can actually detect vibrations.
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Watch here as I feed Jessica Seal.
Sadly, a gunshot wound left Jessica mostly blind
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However, she can easily find her food thanks to her vibrissae.
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That's because their whiskers can detect things like
like hydrodynamic trails of fish swimming in the water.
Not only that but it's been scientifically proven
that seals can not only detect whether or not there is a fish
but what kind of fish it is,
and whether it's even worth pursuing.
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Walruses do something very similar
but not necessarily with fish.
Their primary food source is bivalves - things like clams, mussels -
pretty much the same thing that sea otters eat.
They'll use those vibrissae to detect those clams
and determine size, shape, even species.
(background music) (trainer in clip : "Heeyy!")
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Now because sea otters have a similar diet,
it's safe to assume that they do something similar to walruses.
In fact, wild sea otter whiskers have been shown to have wear on them.
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Especially in soft sediment habitats
where clams and similar bivalves are hunted.
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So it does appear that sea otters can use their whiskers
to detect the water currents from their prey.
They also appear to use their vibrissae to navigate
in murky water that's sometimes stirred up
by their actions of digging up the ocean floor
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So that's a bit about how marine mammals use touch
to navigate, hunt, and capture their prey.
But what about their other senses?
What about taste?
If you're a fan of this channel,
then you probably know the adorable little eating meeps
that Mak and Quatse do when they're eating their clams.
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Does that mean that they enjoy what they're tasting?
(KP in clip: "Mak")
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Find out on our next deeper dive.
In the meantime, head down to the comments
and let me know if you have any questions.
Don't forget to 'like' and subscribe,
and I'll catch you next time on a deeper dive.
Cheers.
(KP in clip: "Do you like it?! It's funny! Feels funny!")
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Oh my god this is the most beautiful-
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(KP in clip: "Boop!") (chuckles)
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(trainer in background: "Toy! I know, I know")
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(KP in clip: "Boop!")
(trainer in clip: "So cute!")
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(KP in clip: "What does it feel like?!")
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(trainer in clip: "It's on your head")
Can you put whiskers on me?
(DoubleAgentXV in background: "I can try")
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