Do you feel frightened when snakes flick their tongue? Although it is frightening, it is a natural behaviour for snakes to flick their tongue. Snakes flick their tongue to gather information from their surroundings to deliver to their sensory organ in their mouth. Snakes do have nostrils as humans do, however, snakes use their nostrils only to draw air into their lungs. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”block” ihc_mb_who=”unreg” ihc_mb_template=”3″ ]
This is the nostrils’ sole function as snakes do not breathe through their mouths and they have only one well-developed lung. Instead of nostrils, snakes smell with a special organ, called Jacobson’s organ located on the roof of their mouths. When the snake’s tongue grabs the chemicals from the environment, the snake pulls the tongue back into the mouth where it touches Jacobson’s organ, which helps the snake’s brain recognize the chemicals as smells. Snakes have forked tongues to have a wider surface area to capture chemicals and to allow snakes to determine the direction of the source of chemicals. This allows them to “smell” their way to their homes, for food, or even for predators. It is very useful to be able to breathe through their nostrils rather than their mouth as snakes won’t suffocate when they eat meals that can take hours to swallow.[/ihc-hide-content]
