Calling all future zoologists will you PLEASE figure out why
animals have blue tongues! The scientific community must be asleep because we
have been able to find giant squids and document them on camera, launch a rover
to Mars, but I still cannot find out why certain animals have blue tongues.
I recently started thinking about blue tongued animals again
because of this picture showing up on my desktop wallpaper.
It was taken last
October by my friend Peter Zuzga in Yellowstone National Park. We stood in the
cold for hours photographing them. When I first saw this picture I just
thought the baby bighorn sheep was SOOOO cute. But now she mocks me with her
blue tongue every time I see her.
To the World Wide Web I went yet again hoping hoping to find
the answer to why some animals have blue tongues. I bet your wondering “how many animals could
possibly have blue tongues?” Well, here are just a few animals which have blue
tongues off the top of my head; the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, the blue-tongued
skink, polar bears, giraffe, some rattlesnakes, and bison. Let’s breakdown what
we know and see if we can make an educated guess as to why bighorn sheep and
bison, two of my favorite animals, have blue tongues.
Polar bears are thought to have blue tongues because they
have black skin. The black skin is an adaptation they have to help keep them
warm in cold climates which has evolved over many many years. Blue-tongued skinks and rattlesnakes are
thought to use their tongue along with hissing and other threatening postures
to scare off other animals looking to eat them.
A giraffe is assumed to have a blue tongue as an adaptation to keep it
from getting sunburned while the giraffe is pulling off leaves in the desert.
Ok, now to the bison and bighorns.
As an adaptation to keep them warm? Um, I am going to have
to say know. Having seen many bighorn sheep and bison pelts they do not have
black skin. Also bison have extremely
thick fur and do not feel cold until the temperatures reach -45 degrees Fahrenheit.
As a way to scare predators?
Yeah, again no. Having been snuck
up on by a wild bison predators have more reasons to be scared than a tongue.
For example size. A male bison can reach 1,000 pounds and a female about 900
pounds. They can run at speed of close to 30 miles per hour and use their heads
like a battering ram. Also bison can
leap a 6 foot object from a standing position. As for
bighorn sheep they have horns which also make effective battering rams, they
run at speeds of close to 20 miles per hour, and can run down a steep slope
with no problem. Imagine getting one of
these animals to stick their tongue out at you. Now I ask you are you scared of
that?
To protect from sunburn?
We may have something here. While there is NO scientific evidence yet to
back up this theory it may help protect their tongues from sunburn. Both bison and bighorn sheep live in
environments where there is very little tree cover and a higher elevations
where the sun’s rays are more intense, so it might make sense. I told my theory to a bison biologist friend
who told me quite simply “we don’t know why their tongues are that color.”So, all you scientists and graduate students someone please take up the investigation and find out why animals have blue tongues
