For mammals, tongues are synonymous with taste. Yet, tongues can be versatile and used for grooming and catching food in different species. Snakes, in particular, are well known for their forked tongues, and they flick them out at anything that catches their attention.
Snakes can taste their food, but because their tongues don’t have tastebuds, the tongues aren’t their means of tasting. Snakes have taste buds on the roof of their mouths. Snakes flick their tongues in the air to gather molecules, which travel to a special organ in the nose, allowing them to taste.
In this article, I’ll discuss how snakes taste and if they have favorite foods. I’ll also explain why snake tongues are forked, how snake nostrils function, and other interesting snake senses. Let’s dive right in!
How Do Snakes Taste?
Snakes can’t taste their food in the same way as mammals do. As humans, we have thousands of tastebuds on our tongues, but snakes have none. However, the tastebuds aren’t
the only way snakes smell and taste their food.
Like other animals, smell contributes to taste in snakes because the smell of the food gives the brain more information about it. This is why people with a stuffy nose or long Covid who’ve lost their sense of smell might find that meals taste different than before they got sick. The tastebuds are working, but you’re still missing part of what the brain relies on to determine taste.
In this way, snakes have a sense of taste that depends entirely on the smell of the food, not the taste detected on the tongue. For these reptiles, the tongue is a way to explore and understand the world, including what they eat.
When the snake opens its mouth to reveal its tongue, olfactory molecules from the food travel from the tongue and into the mouth, where they reach the Jacobson’s or Vomeronasal Organ.
The Jacobson’s Organ is part of the olfactory system and is located on the roof of a snake’s mouth and right behind the nasal chamber. The smell information gathered here from the olfactory particles is transmitted to the animal’s brain, where they’re translated into taste.
Snakes aren’t the only animals with this organ – other reptiles and some mammals also have one, but the organ isn’t as developed or even not functional (both of which are the case for humans).
Do Snakes Have Favorite Foods?
If snakes can’t taste, they shouldn’t care what they eat, right? Not quite. Different snake species and individual differences prove that snakes can, at the least, prefer some foods over others. However, they’re likely basing their preferences on smell and not taste.
This reliance on smell and not taste can help encourage a picky snake to eat something new.
Just like how moving a dead mouse or rat around the enclosure with a pair of tongs can encourage a snake to eat, rubbing the old food item (for example, a mouse) over the new food item (ex: a rat) can make the snake more likely to eat the new food.
This isn’t because the new food item tastes different but because it smells more like the old prey.
This means that you shouldn’t be surprised if you notice your pet snake favoring a certain food over the other.
Why Do Snakes Flick Their Tongues?
Snakes flick their tongues to smell something. The tongue collects chemical particles containing information on the smell of an object in the snake’s nearby vicinity.
Snake flicks are typically quick in-and-out movements and can be used for following scent trails for hunting or tracking down mates.
The following describes a snake’s smell process:
- When the snake detects potential prey or an interesting object in its environment, it flicks its tongue out.
- The tongue gathers olfactory particles from the air.
- The odor particles travel from the tongue to the roof of the mouth, where Jacobson’s Organ is located.
- The sensory cells in Jacobson’s organ then provide the brain’s olfactory region additional information on the smell, allowing the snake to understand what it’s smelling.
Are All Tongue Flicks the Same?
Not all tongue flicks are the same, and there are two types of tongue flicks:
- Touch flicks. This involves the snake rapidly moving its tongue in and out of its mouth when it touches something, such as the person holding it, the ground beneath it, or prey. This type of tongue flick could mean that the snake is feeling excited, curious, or hungry.
- Osculation flicks. This tongue flick type is more common and unique to snakes. The snake moves its tongue up and down to cause a vibration. These flicks gather the odor particles in the air into a pair of vortexes. Once trapped in the vortexes, the snake can repeatedly smell the chemical particles.
You can visualize this odor particle stir-up and collection by picturing how items and debris are pulled into whirlpools from the surrounding water. This allows the snake, at the center of the whirlpool, to get a better idea of what’s around it than simply smelling only the area its tongue is touching.
A yawning snake may also open its mouth to absorb more odor particles.
Why Are Snake Tongues Forked?
Another aspect of a snake’s tongue that sets it apart from other animals is its forked, or bifurcated, shape.
Snake tongues are forked because they allow each fork tine to move independently and simultaneously smell two different things, making a snake’s sense of smell highly efficient.
The equal-length pair of tines split off the tongue shaft at a v-shape, and this odd shape gives the reptile a second boost when gathering odor particles to smell.
Each side of the tongue not only creates its own vortex when the tongue is flicked but also travels to its own Jacobson’s organ. In other words, what a snake smells on one tine will remain separate from the other, all the way to how the signals are transferred to the brain.
It’s this two-sided smell sense that helps snakes use the chemical particles the tongue collects to track prey or mates.
If a snake follows a scent trail, and both sides of its tongue pick up the odor, it knows it’s going in the right direction. If one tine stops smelling the goal, the reptile must turn in the opposite direction.
Are Snake Tongues Similar To Lizard Tongues?
Lizards and snakes are members of the Squamata order, and some lizards, such as the majestic Komodo Dragon, have forked tongues similar to a snake’s. However, while lizards also rely on the tongue to gather information for Jacobson’s Organ, the vibrating osculation tongue flick is unique to snakes.
In addition, tongue shape is one of the ways to tell a snake from a limbless lizard, as no known species of the latter have a forked tongue. If a slithering reptile has a regular forked tongue, it’s a snake.
However, lizards have a trick over snakes. The parietal, or third eye that some lizards use to see light and dark (such as shadows overhead) is not found in any snake species.
How Do Snake Nostrils Function?
If a snake’s tongue is how the animal smells, then what about their nostrils? While the tongue gathers odor particles from heavier, moist air, the nostrils pull in the chemical particles from the air. This is similar to how humans smell.
However, more than the type of smell that we are used to, a snake’s nostrils appear to be more for breathing than gathering scents. The air that moves through the nose mostly goes straight to the lungs.
After all, snakes can’t breathe through their mouths when swallowing prey, and they don’t do so at any other time. If you see a snake that appears to be breathing through its mouth, then there’s a high chance it’s sick and needs to see a vet. Snakes are susceptible to respiratory illnesses, and mouth breathing is a common symptom.
What Other Senses Does a Snake Have?
As snakes have evolved to bury underground, they don’t have the best vision. Some species can see some colors, but overall, they don’t rely much on their eyesight.
Although snakes don’t have visible outer ears, they can hear vibrations in their environment with their internal ears. However, their hearing isn’t well-developed, and they don’t rely on it much.
A snake’s main senses are touch and smell, which makes sense since snakes are so close to the ground.
Conclusion
A snake’s forked tongue is as recognizable as its long, limbless body shape and is a significant part of its olfactory system. By flicking its tongue in the air, the snake gathers odor particles from the environment that, once transferred to Jacobson’s Organ, are registered as smells by the brain.
In addition, the forked shape allows the reptiles to smell two places at once and can be vibrated to create small vortexes of air to pull in more chemical particles.
A snake’s sense of smell is critical for them, including their cute little tongue flicks.
