A giraffe has a prehensile tongue that is about 18 to 20
inches long and is well adapted to harvesting leaves from high trees, notably
the acacia tree. Acacia trees are known to have thorns, so the giraffe must use
its tongue to sort out the thorns from the leaves. Fortunately, a giraffe’s
tongue has thickened papillae, which helps to protect it from the thorns of the
acacia tree. Thick saliva may also help to protect the tongue .
The color of the tongue has sometimes been described as
being either black, blue or purple.
Some people guess that this dark color can help to keep the tongue from getting
sunburned.
The
following video illustrates how a zoo giraffe uses its tongue to reach some high
leaves.
