How do shrews use their whiskers to catch prey?

Shrews use their sensitive whiskers, known as vibrissae, as tactile organs to help them detect prey while foraging.12

Terrestrial shrews possess an acute sense of touch and use these whiskers, along with their sense of smell, to probe through soil and leaf litter to locate invertebrates. Once prey is detected, the shrew uses its mouth to grab the animal, often pinning larger prey with its front feet. For amphibious species, the reliance on touch is even more critical, as they depend almost entirely on these sensory hairs to detect prey while hunting underwater.1