Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Dark melanin pigmentation protects the long giraffe tongue from sunburn. The figure is taken from San Diego Zoo, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a animals fact?

Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

A giraffe tongue is blue-black and up to 45 centimetres long

Dark melanin pigmentation protects the long giraffe tongue from sunburn.

Giraffes spend hours every day stripping leaves from thorny acacia trees high in the savanna canopy. Their tough prehensile tongues are around 45 centimetres long, and dense melanin concentrated in the front section prevents sunburn during continuous feeding in bright sunlight.

Where this comes from

San Diego Zoo

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: giraffe, savanna, adaptation

A giraffe tongue is blue-black and up to 45 centimetres long: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Dark melanin pigmentation protects the long giraffe tongue from sunburn. The figure is taken from San Diego Zoo, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a animals fact?: Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.