7 Strange Animal Tongues You Have to See to Believe

You'll have to see it to believe it—they’re sticky, they’re stretchy, and they’re just plain long! Join Hank Green and check out seven of the strangest tongues in the animal kingdom, here on SciShow!

Smarter Every Day's video about chameleon tongues:

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[prvn]

May very well be one of the best SciShow episodes ever! Great graphics that are relevant, Hank is amazing at presenting, and the jokes he squeezes in are so natural yet so funny and don't detract from the education. Great work to all of the staff involved! You guys are easily the most talented group of educators and creators in educational media! You're all wonderful! Keep up the amazing work!

Props to the very-appropriate tongue-twister "the tube-lipped nectar bat's incredibly long tongue vital to both species".

[AlexRe]

The little voice crack in your voice about the Pangopups made it so much better. Thank you. <3

[musclehank]

my tongue is wildly muscular due to my new tongue workouts i've been doing

[ElynevanOpzeeland]

Hank is just sooo happy when he can talk about giraffes on yt again ;-)
it is nice to see :D

[petalpotionsart]

Honestly thank you for telling me that Pangolin babies are called pangopups, this is very important information.

[catherine_]

I think that blue-tongued skink is quite fancy. Their tongues are special in that they are very blue.

[fraeni]

“Pangolins” sounds like Benedict Cumberbatch trying to pronounce “Penguins”

[jaxnean]

I believe that poacher's bones and skin have mystical powers, I should hunt them, skin them and extract their bones.

[Benzy]

Why did I picture Hank wiggling his tongue at the bottom of the river when explaining the snapping turtle?

[WardOfSouls]

While chameleon tongues do provide a really impressive tether grab, I have to agree with TierZoo:

Lack of solid core stats, along with the fact they only use their color change for emotes, makes them unviable in a competitive meta.

[Master_Therion]

The woodpecker wraps its tongue bone around its skull as a shock absorber? I guess it _licks_ its skull just where it is.

[rachelhughes]

Hank.... I truly DID need to know about pangopups. 😍

[KendrickMan]

I clicked on this praying to god this was a Hank video. It was absolutely a hank video and I'm pleased. Totally his type of topic.

[micahphilson]

I'm so glad you linked to the Smarter Every Day video, I was hoping you would! He did an amazing job of explaining the mechanics of chameleon tongues as well as getting crazy, unprecedented footage showing it in action!

[gideonjones]

That's funny, I thought I already knew everything there was to know about pangolins. How did I miss this? It's hilarious

[Jedran]

Oh god did you just say tongues can be biologically similar to a penis...? Just, so much eww.

To Hank and all the crew who write and edit these episodes: I love learning here, even this bizzare tongue science. I don't have the ability to offer anything through Patreon, but I almost never miss an opportunity to find something new to learn.

You're all so awesome for making things like this show possible. YouTube is changing so much and I will be following the channel wherever it might go. Thanks again.

[andreaaristokrates]

A grabby tongue would be really nice to have, hands free eating! Clean key boards! Who wouldn't want that?

[nettlescats]

Cow tongues 'grip' grass and the cow moves their head to rip the grass, and often the roots, out of the ground...since they don't have top teeth. That's one reason I only want horses in my fields. They have top and bottom teeth and pinch the grass in two before pulling, which cuts it neatly without uprooting the whole thing.

[WarheaddVids]

What about the tongue from the package sent through mail?
The parcel-tongue