List Of 10 Animals That Have The Longest Tongue

Animals With the Longest Tongues:  The environment is packed with unique and beautiful creatures. From long ears to long tongues, each animal in nature has some distinctive features which differ from the others. These unique characteristics help them survive life in some way or another. From hunting slippery insects to eating leaves, some animals have developed astonishingly long tongues that play a key role in their existence. Let’s take a look at the list of 10 animals with the longest tongues, along with the reason for how their special adaptation supports them in living.

List Of Top 10 Animals That Have The Longest Tongue:

Animal	Tongue Length/Feature
Chameleon	Longer than its body
Tube-lipped Nectar Bat	1.5 times its body length
Giant Anteater	Up to 2 feet (60 cm)
Giraffe	Up to 21 inches (53 cm)
Okapi	Up to 14 inches (35 cm)
Woodpecker	Up to 4 inches (10 cm)
Pangolin	Up to 27.5 inches (70 cm)
Sun Bear	Up to 10 inches (25 cm)
Blue Whale	Weighs up to 8,000 lbs, very large
Swallowtail Butterfly	Long, coiled proboscis

Top 10 Animals That Have The Longest Tongue:

Chameleon

Chameleons are famous for their tongues, which are known to be longer than their body. Their tongue shoots out at lightning-fast speed, which is up to 60 mph, to grab insects at a distance. The sticky tip guarantees a successful hunt and makes it effortless for them to catch any insect.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Canva)

Tube-lipped Nectar Bat

This tiny Ecuadorian bat has a tongue 1.5 times as long as its body, which is the longest tongue to body size in mammals. The tongue folds back into its ribcage and is used to tap nectar within tubular flowers, which also makes it an important pollinator.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Canva)

Giant Anteater

Giant anteaters possess tongues that are 2 feet in length. Since they do not have teeth, they use their sticky, narrow tongues to examine ant hills and termite heaps and eat thousands of insects each day.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Instagram @santabarbarazoo)

Giraffe

The giraffe's tongue may extend to a length of 21 inches and is prehensile since it can envelop and pull away leaves from trees that are long and thorny. Its dark colour prevents sunburn when spending extended periods while feeding.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Canva)

Okapi

Similar to the giraffe, okapis possess 14-inch tongues that are so flexible they can lick their ears and eyes. This animal’s long tongue is useful for grooming and eating leaves in dense woodland.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Canva)

Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are birds that have long, barbed tongues, up to 4 inches that will curl around their head when retracted. They use this so that they can peel out insects from deep in the bark of trees.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Instagram @westsoundwildlife)

Pangolin

Pangolins, which are protected by scales, possess tongues as long as 27.5 inches, which is half their body length at times. Their sticky tongues are perfect for eating ants and termites from subterranean nests.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Instagram @humaneworldsa)

Sun Bear

Sun bears have tongues as long as 10 inches, which are useful to suck honey from beehives and insects from crevices. Their flexible tongues are necessary for their omnivorous diet.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Canva)

Blue Whale

Although not very long compared to body size, the blue whale's tongue is the largest and most massive in the animal kingdom, weighing as much as 8,000 pounds. The tongue is useful in filter feeding, assisting the whale in ingesting enormous amounts of krill.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Canva)

Swallowtail Butterfly

This butterfly possesses a coiled, long proboscis, which is a special type of tongue to drink nectar from flowers deep inside. The proboscis can be retracted and extended to gain access to food that is out of reach.

Animal With Longest Tongue (Image Credit: Canva)

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