Barnorama All Fun In The Barn
I’ve never really spent a whole lot of time thinking about toucans. I mean, I don’t exactly have a vested interest in birds, but a recent viral Tumblr thread reveals one simple fact:
Toucans might be some of the weirdest animals on Earth:
As if that wasn’t weird enough, it turns out that huge bill has a network of blood vessels to help control its body temperature for cooling off, not unlike how elephants use the blood vessels in their ears to cool off.
But what’s really weird are their tongues:
They’re tongues look like a feather, and get up to 6 inches long. The bristles allow the toucan to flick food down its long beak/gullet.
Now, that huge beak should be an impediment to flight, except that small air holes in the beak’s structure make it much lighter than it looks:
The strangest thing about toucans though is what they eat. They are classified as “opportunistically omnivorous,” which means they traditionally try to eat fruits and nuts. But, living in the wild is harsh, so toucans will frequently resort to eating small birds, lizards, and insects if necessary.
All in all, one of the weirdest creatures to waddle on this Earth, but let’s end on something cute, like baby Toucans:
