Quote Originally Posted by frankykeno
I've always noticed ours tongue flick more rapidly when they are exploring something so I assume they are just gathering more information about what's going on in their surroundings at that moment. I know from doing some reading that their tongues are so sensitive that one fork can pick up more scent than the other fork and tell them if a rodent they are tracking went right or left. I was reading up on snake's and hearing recently because it's assumed they are deaf as they have no external ear openings. A couple of articles said that they in fact have quite good interior ear structures but that instead of picking up sounds/vibrations in the air the way we do through our ear canals, they pick that information up through their body's contact with the ground and especially through their lower jaw bone.

The article went on to say that the lack of external open ear canals and no eyelids (rather the solid eyecap) were evolutionary adjustments to allow them to go into environments where open ear canals and blinking eyelids would be a problem for them.

Pretty amazing creatures aren't they!
Thanks for that info, Jo! That's really interesting! It would also explain why he seems to gently glide his snout over things, or gently prod things while he's exploring--if they pick up sensations through the lower jaw bone

And since BPs live mainly underground in the wild, it would make perfect sense not to want to have eyelids or open ear canals--it'd be hard to clean the dirt out of those!!

They are amazing