Tigers used to lick their paws when they were young. Why do tigers like licking their paws?

Macey Tiger is in a happy moment in daily life when he and his mother fall in love!

Tigers used to lick their paws when they were young. Come and have a look with me.

Macey Tiger is in a happy moment in daily life when he and his mother fall in love!

Tigers used to lick their paws when they were young.

A tiger's tongue can lick half a human skin. Is it true or false? Why is the cat's tongue full of barbs?

I don't know if you heard the older generation say when you were a child: a tiger's tongue can lick the lower half of a human skin!

In fact, this is not groundless, because many cats have barbs on their tongues, so there is a saying that "a tiger's tongue can lick half a human skin." However, although the tiger's tongue has barbs, is it really that powerful?

Is it true that tigers lick human skin?

The tiger's tongue is numb, and there are large and small barbs evenly distributed on it, mostly white and shaped like a small version of pepper. These barbs are very powerful. If you lick them gently, they will do harm to people's skin, just as people fall into thorns. Usually when tigers eat, they bite with their teeth first, and then lick the broken meat off the bones with barbs.

Therefore, it is probably true that tigers can lick human skin!

Zoo keepers will be armed to the teeth when feeding. On the one hand, they are afraid that the angry king of beasts will bite themselves, and on the other hand, they are afraid that they will accidentally lick themselves.

Of course, tigers can control the barbs on their tongues through the muscles on their tongues. If it knows you well enough, it can also control the barbs. When licking you, it will be much gentler, more like sandpaper polishing, and it will only itch.

Therefore, when the tiger licks itself and its baby, it can also control the barbs and try not to hurt the fur. Many people are curious to feel what it's like to be licked by a tiger. Just think about this idea, but you can't do experiments to death.

You know, if you are licked by a tiger, you may be infected by bacteria in addition to skin damage. As a carnivore, the tiger sometimes eats some rotting corpses, and its mouth will breed a large number of microorganisms, which will crawl into your body along the wound and cause infection.

Why do most cats have barbs on their tongues?

In nature, tigers, cheetahs, kittens and other animals have barbs on their tongues, which is also one of the characteristics of cats.

Most of the meat eaten by human beings is cooked before eating. Even if it is raw, it will pick out the bones with a knife. The barb on the cat's tongue is like this bone scraper. The meat attached to the bone will enter the mouth smoothly after licking it. When they drink water, these barbs are small and dense, which can also help them gather water on their tongues and drink more water.

Besides licking bones, we can often see cats taking care of their hair. On the one hand, barbs on the tongue can help hair fall off smoothly and clean up hair and fleas. On the other hand, it can remove the body odor and help hide yourself when hunting. When the baby is born, the cat will also lick the dirty things on the baby with barbs to help the baby clean up the hair. This can make the baby more familiar with himself and enhance his feelings.

Compared with other big cats, the barbs on the tongue of petite and lovely kittens are less harmful to people. It has to lick the same piece of skin constantly, which will damage the skin, but it may be much scarier for mice. The existence of these barbs can make it fall to pieces. At the same time, these barbs have also brought some troubles to the cat's life. For example, when licking hair, the hair sticks to the barb, and with the swallowed food entering the esophagus, the esophagus is blocked, or the fine hair sticks to the mouth, and the cat scratches itself.

Scientists also found through research that the barbs on the cat's tongue are actually papillae shaped like barbs. The protrusions of cats and tigers are called filiform nipples, which are highly keratinized and form a barbed appearance. It is made of keratin, just like our nails. The nails hidden in the tiger's sharp claws are also the same kind of protein. This keratin not only grows in claws to defend and attack other animals, but also grows in the mouth, which is also a unique feature of nature.

All animals except cats have barbed tongues. The first is the woodpecker, which looks silly. In fact, its hard mouth hides a thin and long tongue, which is covered with barbs, and a layer of mucus is attached to the surface of the barbs. I saw it hammering at the trunk, and when it saw the insects drilling deep into the cave, it stuck out its tongue and hooked the fat insects out for a hearty meal. At the same time, woodpeckers will also use the barbs on their tongues to absorb nutrients from the trunk.

Then, even the most common camel in the desert Gobi needs to replenish its water and energy at any time in order to survive in extreme environment, so its mouth is full of meat thorns. Most of them eat cactus and chew with their thick mouths and teeth to prevent being stabbed by cactus when eating, so as to swallow food smoothly.

Of course, not all fierce animals have barbs on their tongues. For example, the bear's tongue, like human's, is mostly used to chew food with its mouth.

There are many animals in nature that have no barbs on their tongues. Most of the long barbs are due to the need of diet and play an auxiliary role in predation. There is no need to lick their stomachs in diet, and their tongues will degenerate into soft and smooth appearance.

According to the characteristics of the cat's barb, a scientist named Lidehu had a whim and studied the cat's tongue, and came to the conclusion that there are 36 kinds of cats with protrusions in the world; The lion's tongue is the biggest among cats; The saliva attached to the barb on the cat's tongue can help the cat to dissipate heat. The barb on the cat's tongue is hollow, like a small straw.

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Tigers really lick human skin, which is not alarmist, but in nature, the characteristics of some animals will bring harm to people, but it may also inspire people to make new inventions, which is not only the mystery of animal survival, but also a natural choice.

When watching cats as fierce as tigers, we should also keep a proper distance from them. If we don't go to the zoo, we can't help but extend our curious hands.