Cetacean senses: hearing, vision, touch

Adapted to an acoustic world

In a medium where sight carries only a short way, cetaceans have radically reorganised their senses: highly developed hearing (up to 180 kHz in odontocetes), monochromatic vision adapted to all depths, hypersensitive touch (nerve endings on the rostrum), taste and smell almost atrophied. This table compares the documented sensory sensitivities for the main groups.

Further reading

Cetacean senses are adapted to the marine environment: acoustic profile, brain and cognition, interactive anatomy and diving physiology.

Hearing first, vision as a complement

In water, where light fades quickly but sound carries far, cetaceans have made hearing their principal sense. Their inner ear, modified through evolution, is isolated from the skull in a bony sinus filled with a specific oil (the acoustic fat), which allows acoustic directionality underwater. Odontocetes detect and emit ultrasound (up to 150 kHz), while mysticetes sense infrasound (10 Hz and below).

Vision remains operational both above and below the surface, a considerable optical challenge. Spyhopping (the head held vertically out of the water) allows them to inspect the environment above. Olfaction has all but disappeared in odontocetes (pseudofunctional genes), but baleen whales retain traces of it. Touch, by contrast, is highly developed: physical contact punctuates the social life of common bottlenose dolphins and killer whales.