These animals have incredibly weird adaptations for eating and drinking
The chameleon has one of the world's fastest tongues. One study found it can extend the organ up to 1.5 times its body length. Here it is in super-slow motion so you can actually watch the chameleon catch its prey.
Woodpeckers' tongues are so long that they wrap around their skull for safe-keeping. They use them to probe the holes they poke in trees to root out ants and other insects living inside.
Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Blue whale tongues weigh almost 6,000 pounds. That's as much as African forest elephants weigh! They probably use their giant tongues to pick some of the thousands of pounds of krill out of their toothbrush bristle-looking baleen plates.
Scientists still aren't sure how bats drink, but they think they use their tongues as a kind of conveyor belt to slurp up nectar.
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Some snakes use folds of skin in their mouths to soak up water like a sponge through a mechanism called capillary action, a 2012 study found.
Source: Journal of Experimental Zoology.
Pangolins, a relative of anteaters, have long, sticky tongues supplied by an overactive salivary gland that they use to eat thousands of ants. The mammals are hunted in parts of Asia for their meat and scales, and are critically endangered.
Sources: YouTube Video, WWF
Hummingbirds can only drink nectar when the tip of their tongue is immersed in it, an August 2015 study found. The organ works like a tiny elastic micropump to slurp up 14X its body weight in nectar every day.
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Sources: Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Wired
The okapi, which is related to giraffes and looks kind of like a zebra, has a tongue so long it can lick its own eyes and ears. The animal uses its lengthy tongue to strip leaves off of trees and into its mouth.
The sand grouse has feathers that soak up water like a sponge so it can share the drink with its chicks when it returns to the nest.
Source: This 1967 study
The thorny devil, an Australian lizard, pools water in the grooves of its skin, funneling it toward the corners of its mouth to drink.
Dogs make little cups out of their tongues when they drink water, and they are much sloppier than cats.
Source: DNews
Cat tongues make cups, too. Felines create a column of water under their tongue when they elegantly place it on the surface of the liquid. Mesmerizing, isn't it?
Source: DNews
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