Predators: Chameleons Have Killer Fast Tongues

[Narrator] Okay. So let's just talk for a minute

about that freaky thing chameleons do with their tongues.

This is how they hunt.

They see a juicy grasshopper and then they fling their

super long, extra stretchy tongues at it.

The tip of the tongue is shaped like a club

and the center of it retracts so that the

insect is sucked in like the worst burrito ever.

That's so there's as much bug surface area

as possible touching the tongue,

which is covered with mucus

and lots of little grabby hairs,

and this all happens dizzingly fast.

A chameleon can unfurl its' whole tongue,

which is about twice as long as it is,

in 0.07 seconds.

How? It contracts a muscle,

which stretches other tissues in the tongue

and then releases it, launching the slimy profusion

like an arrow from a bow with accelerations of 41 G's.

And those crazy eyes help them catch bugs too.

Chameleon vision is extremely good.

They have 756,000 light receiving cones

per square millimeter in their retinas,

so they can precision snipe unsuspecting insects,

even in midair.

We see you, chameleons. We see you.