The motion of tapered fiber probes was studied both theoretically and experimentally. A continuum-mechanical model, including both the intrinsic and the external loss, is proposed to account for the vibration dynamics of the probe. The intrinsic loss was found to be the dominant damping factor experimentally. Analytical solutions based on a realistic probe geometry were obtained for the model in the presence of intrinsic loss. The results are compared with the measured overall motions of the tapered probe. The calculations agree well with the experimental results. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.