Your Cat’s Tantalizing Tongue
Perhaps the most mysterious of your cat’s parts, his tongue is one amazing little organ. Small, pink and unimposing, yet somehow it can feel a little like some sort of torture device when it runs over you. If you’ve ever wondered why a cat’s tongue is so rough or want to unlock other mysteries surrounding the tongue, then lap up the rest of this article.
What Makes A Cat’s Tongue So Rough?
The roughness of a cat’s tongue is due to the fact that it’s covered in barbs; literally sharp, pointy barbs that are nicely named papillae. These papillae are made from keratin, the same thing that your cat’s claws are made from, and they’re similar in shape. Every papillae is faced toward the back of your cat’s mouth in an effort to move things (hair, food, strings) down the throat. This orientation also makes it easier to grab and pull at things. When your kitty licks something, it’s essentially driving those hooks into it
Why Does A Cat’s Tongue Need To Be Rough?
You may have noticed that your cat takes immaculate care of her skin and coat. She spends nearly as much time grooming as she does napping. While you may think your cat is vain, the excessive grooming is actually an age old hunting tactic used to remove their scent so that they can better sneak up on prey. While your feline friend may not be in need of this sort of thing, grooming as a cat does help to remove snarls from their hair, distribute natural oils for a soft and water-repellant coat, and show affection to you and other critters. The hooked papillae work better than a brush at detangling mats, removing old hair, and exfoliating the skin.
Another important function of a cat’s rough tongue is to remove meat from bones in a clean and efficient way. Just like your house cat, cats in the wild don’t want to get food all over their face. The tongue, with its powerful papillae, works to easily pull the meat from the bone, into their mouth and down their throat without giving them a food mustache. It also allows them to get every last morsel as wild cats don’t always know when the next meal will be.
How Does A Cat’s Tongue Help Them Drink?
If you have a dog, then you have seen how they can’t take a drink with out getting water everywhere. That’s because they have to curl their tongue and dip it in deep in order to bring water into their mouths. When cats drink, on the other hand, they barely touch the water at all. Instead, they use the tip of their tongue to very rapidly touch the surface of the water. When they bring their tongue back into their mouth, it creates a column of water that they then gracefully bite off and swallow. This minimizes splashing for a nice dry face. Every size cat has a different drinking rhythm that’s the perfect speed to produce a nice, clean water column for efficient, no-mess drinking; the larger the cat species, the slower the rhythm. Who knew cats were such great physicists?
As if you needed another reason to think your cat is amazing, now you know what an extraordinary organ his tongue is. Evolutionarily designed to keep your cat’s coat looking amazing, it also defies gravity when he drinks. Your cat’s tongue is just another mysterious piece in your cat’s fantastic puzzle.
www.pbs.org/newshour/science/kqed-deep-look-cats-tongue-sandpaper
https://m.petmd.com/cat/general-health/cool-facts-about-your-cats-tongue
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3EXd-W_GCol
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rsomNA6Exgg
