A snake doesn\u2019t use his tongue, or mouth, to scoop up water, to drink. Instead they have a a peculiar sponge-like structure in their mouth that works like a sponge. Amy Arthur explains <\/p>
If you watch a snake drinking, you\u2019ll notice that he doesn\u2019t use his tongue, nor does he use his mouth to scoop up water. His head remains very still, while inside his mouth a sponge-like structure<\/a> is being squeezed and then released, sucking in water just like a kitchen sponge.<\/p>\n This clever drinking mechanism comes from the snake\u2019s peculiar anatomy. A snake\u2019s lower jaw has folds of soft tissue that unfurl to widen the snake\u2019s mouth when he\u2019s devouring large prey. But when the layers of tissue are folded in on themselves, the gaps between them act like holes in a sponge. A little pressure from the muscles and bones in the snake\u2019s head can squeeze the folds, and releasing them causes water to rush in.<\/p>\n It\u2019s thought that most snakes drink this way, though a study in boa constrictors<\/a> found that they can seal around their mouths, leaving a small hole for sucking in water the way we humans do with a straw.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u00a0<\/p>\n Main image: copperhead snake\u00a0 \u00a9 Getty Images<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n A snake doesn\u2019t use his tongue, or mouth, to scoop up water, to drink. Instead they have a a peculiar sponge-like structure in their mouth that works like a sponge. Amy Arthur explains <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28016,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/how-do-snakes-drink-water.jpg",2126,1409,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/how-do-snakes-drink-water-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/how-do-snakes-drink-water-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/how-do-snakes-drink-water-768x509.jpg",768,509,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/how-do-snakes-drink-water-1024x679.jpg",800,530,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/how-do-snakes-drink-water-1536x1018.jpg",1536,1018,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/05\/how-do-snakes-drink-water-2048x1357.jpg",2048,1357,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A snake doesn\u2019t use his tongue, or mouth, to scoop up water, to drink. Instead they have a a peculiar sponge-like structure in their mouth that works like a sponge. Amy Arthur explains","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/28015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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