Bats' Tongue Bristles Act Like Water Balloons While Feeding: A Study

Bats that feed on nectar get help from erect bristles that spring from the tip of its tongue, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As it turns out, as a bat stretches its tongue down inside a flower its muscles stretch out, forcing blood from the middle of the tongue down into hairlike nubs, reports biomechanist Cally Harper along with her colleagues at Brown University.

These nubs then quickly fill up like water balloons as the bat feeds.

Previously, scientists had assumed that the hairy bristles lining the bats' tongue tips acted more like the long strands on a mop, limply soaking up liquid, according to Science News.

However, the new study suggests the tongue bristles are much more active in the gathering process.

“It’s like if you walked into your kitchen, picked up the mop out of the corner, and the mop reached down to the floor and spread out all its tendrils,” biologist Margaret Rubega of the University of Connecticut, told the science news outlet.

In order to see the bristles in action, Harper and her colleagues stuck a high-speed video camera on a clear acrylic feeder and then set up the fiber optics so they would shine bright lights on the bats’ tongues.

The team then filled the feeder with sugar water and waited for the bats to come and pay a visit.

As they consumed the treat, the scientists observed as the animals’ pink tongues turned red and blood-filled bristles swelled into spikes. Like a multi-pronged soup ladle, Harper said, these swollen spikes each pulled in some nectar.

These findings have implications for other animals, including the honey possum, a mammal with a brush-shaped tongue tip. It too, Harper believes, might use the same technique.

But nor does it stop at animals: one day, Harper speculates, the bats’ tongues could inspire floppy surgical tools that become firm when pumped full of air or liquid.