The interesting thing is that the tongue colour sticks to the overall body like velcro - an orange Asian vine snake will have an orange tongue, and so on. Consequently, this is a rare species to occasionally have a silver tongue, which looks like it would be in mortal peril if it ever decided to lick a magnet. Snakes' tongues come in different colors, such as cream, blue, red, and even black! Even more astonishingly, snakes' tongues can sometimes have more than one color.
Snake tongue color. Image via Unsplash The color of a snake's tongue can be a direct reflection of its physical health. In many cases, a healthy snake will have a brightly colored or consistent-toned tongue.
Any variation from its usual color, such as unusual redness, paleness, or discoloration, could signal health issues. These changes might indicate stress, infection, or nutritional. Some snakes even have tongues with two colors! For instance, a garter snake has a red tongue except at the tip, where it is black.
Sadly, like me, not too many scientists have wondered about the colors of snake tongues and this issue has not been extensively studied. Be assured, from now on I will examine the tongues of every snake I meet. Various snake species have different colored tongues.
Some species have dark colored tongues, while others are bright red, blue or cream. In some species -- garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis ssp.) provide an excellent example -- the tongue is often red at the base, while the tips are black. Individual variation exists in some species as well, with different specimens exhibiting differently.
Where this may apply to snakes' tongues is that snakes have of course evolved with many selection forces, and some of them had to have been behavioral (and therefore neurological). Why else would arboreal snake species tend to have such different temperaments than more terrestrial ground-dwelling snake species? What color are snakes tongues? Unlike humans limited to one tongue color (pink), some snakes have cream, blue, or red tongues, while some mix up to two of these colors. In Neotropical vine snakes, the tongue color matches very closely the body color, and these snakes tend to hold their tongue extended out motionless.
Tongue colour varies enormously in the snake kingdom. Some, like the painted bronzeback, have the usual fleshy red colour, but in Africa you have weird creatures like the marbled tree snake, which is split between white and black. What color is a poisonous snakes tongue? Various snake species have different colored tongues.
Some species have dark colored tongues, while others are bright red, blue or cream.