• Question: What evolutionary advantages do giraffes gain from having black tongues?

    Asked by scientist101 to Edd, Jess, Zara on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      The giraffes tongue is definitely a dark colour – a bluey purpley black. The theory at the moment is that this helps to protect from sunburn as they are often stretching out their tongue to grab branches and leaves. The tongue itself and the giraffes mouth are also very very tough as they often eat leaves and branches with sharp thorns.
      http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-bytes/animalia/eumetazoa/coelomates/deuterostomes/chordata/craniata/mammalia/artiodactyla/giraffe.htm

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Hi scientist101!

      I think the theory about sun protection is a good one… the black colour absorbs light rather than reflecting it. It would be very painful grabbing leaves with a sunburnt tongue!

      There are other animals with unusual coloured tongues… the blue-tongued lizard in Australia, for example (I think you can guess what colour its tongue is!!). 😛 It uses its colourful tongue to distract or startle predators.

Comments