Page 227 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

IT CAN’T BE TRUE! 225

FAST FACTS
A hippo’s The biggest mouth of any animal
jaw opens belongs to the bowhead whale.
wide enough The official world record is 16 ft
to fit a sports (5 m) long, 8 ft (2.5 m) wide,
car inside. and 12 ft (4 m) tall—three times
bigger than a hippo’s mouth.

The height of
a Ferrari Modena
car is 4 ft (1.2 m)—
about as tall as a The longest tongue relative to
seven-year-old child. body size belongs to the tube-lipped
bat. At 3½ in (85 mm) long, the
tongue is 1.5 times the bat’s body
length and is extended into the
tube flowers on which it feeds.
When the bat is not feeding, the
tongue retracts into the rib cage.

Bat tongue

Flower Up to 3½ in (85 mm)
A woodpecker’s tongue can be up
to three times the length of its beak.
The mouth opens The tongue curls up around its skull
wide when rival when not in use. The bird hammers
males are fighting its beak against trees, making holes
or females are for the tongue to probe inside the
protecting trunk for insects.
their young.

Tongue
Up to
6¾ in
(170 mm)

US_224-225_309600_Hippo.indd 225 20/12/17 5:31 pm