Why does a giraffe have a blue tongue: possible reasons

Surely everyone wondered at least once why the giraffe has a blue tongue. After all, this is a rather unusual shade for the language, you see. Let’s try to understand this interesting question.

Why does a giraffe have a blue tongue? possible reasons

So, what is the reason for such a phenomenon?

• Speaking about why the giraffe has a blue tongue, it is worth first of all to name the most common theory among researchers – namely, that such a tongue is best protected from burns. Let’s remember what is the skin tone of people who live in especially hot countries. That’s right: the inhabitants of such countries are black. And all because such a dark pigment protects well from burns that may appear due to the scorching sun. According to research, the giraffe absorbs food almost all the time – namely, from 16 to even 20 hours a day! The fact is that plant foods, which make up the entire diet of giraffes, are low in calories. Given the weight of a giraffe, sometimes reaching 800 kg, he needs to eat at least 35 kg of vegetation per day. As the vegetation is torn off, this animal actively uses a long 45-cm tongue, which is able to reach even the highest leaves. He gently wraps around them, then puts them in his mouth. Researchers believe that if the tongue were lighter, it would certainly get burned. And strong and often.
• Also, the reason that the tongue of a giraffe is almost black is the structure of the animal. Everyone knows that the giraffe is very tall – this is one of his, so to speak, “calling cards”. Accordingly, the heart has a huge load – it needs to constantly distill a huge amount of blood. At the same time, the blood is quite thick – it is believed that the density of blood cells is twice that of a human. Even in the vein in the neck there is a special valve that can block the blood flow. This is done to stabilize the pressure. In a word, the giraffe has a lot of vessels. Therefore, the mucous areas are not red, as we are used to, but dark, bluish.
• By the way, it is worth talking separately about blood. It has a lot of red blood cells – much more than, for example, in humans. Similarly, there are too many oxygen compounds. This, of course, also affects the tone of the tongue.

What other animals have blue languages

А what other animals can boast blue tongues?

• Giant lizard – since it serves as a tasty prey for some predators, it needs something to resist them. Running away is not always possible, but it is quite possible to scare the enemy! And bright colors are great for this purpose. The blue tongue also plays a deterrent role in this vein. As soon as a lizard sticks out its bright and foul-smelling tongue, some predators are perplexed. Sometimes such confusion is enough, by the way, in order to escape.
• Some dog breeds are Chow Chow, Shar Pei. The Chinese, by the way, who bred these breeds, firmly believed that the tongues of these animals scare away evil spirits. That is, they are a kind of amulets. But specialist researchers, of course, are not inclined to such mysticism. They believe that the Shar Pei got its unique language from an ancestor who had both a similar shade of tongue and dark skin. By the way, it is believed that the Chow Chow came from the same ancestor – the polar wolf, which then died out. And where did these wolves have such a shade of language? The point is a special property of the air of the North – it has a low oxygen content.
• And here we smoothly move on to the next point, because the polar bear also boasts a purple tongue! After all, when there is little oxygen, this part of the body just turns blue. But what about the black bear? After all, he lives south! The answer in this case lies in the active flow of blood to the tongue.

У nature does not happen just like that. And if something has an unusual color, which means that it will certainly be found explanation. The same goes for colors. giraffe tongue!