Watch your tongue

It is true that a person who sticks out his/her tongue is considered to be immature,childish etc. But in case of some animals, it is a matter of  their survival.

The reptiles, like snakes, who frequently flicker their tongue, are doing it for the reason of smelling (to capture scent particles) and not because they are hungry.

Image courtesy of [by africa] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Chameleons do have their own uniqueness about their tongues. Their chief weapon which they use for hunting is not the tongue but the sticky adhesive on their tongue which helps them in catching insects. Also, there are species of chameleons whose tongues are longer than their bodies giving them enough flexibility to catch far away insects.Again in this list, amphibians are no exception. Batrachians ( frogs and toads) use tongues only single utility- for catching their prey.
 Moving now from amphibians and reptiles, there are some mammals who use their tongues for even better purposes. Towering beasts - giraffes extend their black colored, prehensile tongues from their mouth for plucking the Acacia leaves from the tree.Also, they use their 18-20 inches long tongue to clean their ears.


Scaly anteaters called pangolins have incredibly long tongue to feed on ants and termites and they can stretch their thin, long tongues into very narrow lanes of termite mounds. No need to use its claws to break open the termite mounds. This makes them one of the animals with longest tongues.

Both domestic and wild cats do have another rough feature on their tongues called as horny papillae used for grooming and rasping the liquid part of the flesh.

Leave the baby alone!

This post is on request from one of my blog readers. The question was whether animal's parents reject their young ones if touched by humans.

The answer is - in general, no. It is common in rodents but rarely a case occurs in large animals. Yes, they will reject only if too much human handling is done.

I recently read about this incident that happened in Yellowstone national park of US. A young bison calf was rejected by the entire herd after some silly tourists picked it up and stored at the back of their vehicle thinking to protect it from cold. But, when the park rangers were reuniting the animal back with the herd, very sadly the herd rejected it. Later, park rangers euthanized the poor animal as it would have had come in contact with vehicles on the road. How sad!!

In all national parks and sanctuaries people are prohibited to not only hunt wildlife, but to touch and feed also. However, licensed (controlled hunting) is allowed in specific countries.

But, being touched by humans cannot be the only reason why female animals reject their young ones. Other reasons could be undernourished young ones or lazy to be a mother etc.

The female leaders

There is talk of स्‍त्री शक्‍ति all around. As such it is Devi's Navaratri too. Even, USA is  gearing up to have their first female president.  So, why not talk about how females fare in animal world! To begin with, the saying goes by- " The female of the species is more deadlier than the male".

A hyena's group is called as clan.  The leader of clan of spotted hyenas is always a female hyena. Interestingly, a female hyena is larger than the male. What is even more amazing is that they can lock (proverbial) horns with the top predator in their habitat- the lion. Truly, they aren't scared of lions as they are even famed for stealing prey from a pride of lion. When the female hyena arrives with her entire clan, the pride will usually give up.


There are several other critters where the females outweigh the males. The Great horned owl (inset) is a famous example where the females are larger than males and have a deeper hooting call than males. Also, great horned owls aren't named because they have horns. They are called so as they boast tufts of feathers on the top of their head.

The female green anacondas, also outweigh their male counterparts. These bulky ophidians inhabit near swamps of rainforests and wetlands lurking for prey like capybara (world's largest rodent),deer, tapirs, caiman alligators and even surprisingly jaguars. But, aren't much aggressive towards humans.

The oldest cow elephant is the leader of the herd. However a herd of elephants does not have older male elephants (bulls) as they tend to lead solitary lives after the age of 13 years.  

So that's my tribute to the female fraternity, er... sorority!