What animal has the longest tongue?
The blue whale has the largest tongue, weighing about as much as an elephant. Relative to body size, chameleons and the tube-lipped nectar bat have the longest tongues.
A blue whale's tongue can weigh around 2.7 tonnes. On land, the giant anteater has a tongue up to about 60 centimeters long, which it flicks in and out about 150 times a minute to eat thousands of ants and termites. Giraffes have dark tongues about 45 to 50 centimeters long, used to grab leaves from thorny trees.
Some chameleons can shoot their tongues out more than twice their body length in a fraction of a second. The tube-lipped nectar bat of Ecuador has a tongue about 1.5 times its body length, which it stores in its rib cage. It uses it to reach nectar deep inside tube-shaped flowers.
Other remarkable tongues
Woodpeckers have long tongues that wrap around the inside of their skulls when not in use. Sun bears have tongues up to about 25 centimeters long to reach honey and insects in tree hollows.
Did You Know?
The Guinness World Record for the longest human tongue belongs to Nick Stoeberl of the US, at about 10.1 centimeters from tip to lip.