The magic of the mouth and tongue

The deer's tongue measures about 50 centimeters in length. Deer use their tongues to hold other items, turn their noses, and wipe their ears, just like elephants do with their ivory. The tongues are dark blue to shield themselves from sunlight. The deer just lick the leaves and tug and put them in their mouths, making use of their tongues that resemble snakes to obtain food. When coupled with the tongue, the deer's broad upper lip can act as an arm. To guard against thorns and wounds, the interior of the mouth, along with the lips and tongue, are coated by a tough, finger-like papilla.

A giraffe's tongue has changed over time to become the appropriate form, size, and color match for its preferred diet. The acacia tree, a tall tree with branches scattered with leaves and strong thorns, provides the giraffe with its preferred diet of leaves. Since the giraffe's long tongue has a grasping capacity, it can be used to remove leaves from an acacia tree while avoiding its many painful thorns. Giraffes require roughly 30 kg of acacia leaves per day to survive. Giraffes can spend up to 12 hours a day feeding since they only eat a small amount of leaves in each bite to avoid the many thorns on the branches.