Why do geckos lick their eyes with their tongue? (7 photos)

Geckos don't mind showing off their long tongue, which reaches all the way to their eyes. However, did you know that geckos and some other lizards lick them?





Imagine that there is a gecko in front of you. Here the animal is looking intently at you, without looking away. So she opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue... And then she takes it and pokes it into her eye! Ouch... Why a lizard? What are you, a masochist?!



No, not a masochist. It’s just that evolution moves blindly, and for some animals we have to invent crutches. Several species of geckos did not have a nictitating membrane. While other animals blink actively, geckos cannot do this.





They, like the snakes, came to an alternative idea. Both had eyelids, but they became transparent and grew together. It turned out that the reptiles “put on” permanent transparent glasses. On the one hand, it’s convenient, you don’t have to blink anymore. On the other hand, there are problems of their own.



Pay attention to the snake's skin. Her old scales come off along with her eye glasses.

For example, with such a design on the eyes there is no way to protect your blinkers from bright light, which is why snakes and geckos have such narrow pupils during the day. And even though glasses protect your eyes from debris, they still become contaminated with pebbles, grains of sand, and earth. You need to get rid of garbage, so geckos have to slobber on their eyes with their long tongues.



Friend: Look, I can reach my nose with my tongue. Me: Look what I can do:

At this point, it becomes a windshield wiper, improving vision clarity and reducing the chances of your eyes getting sore. While humans will blink hard, trying to remove a sunken eyelash, geckos will simply remove the foreign object in one movement.



Hey, you! Yes, you. Staring match until you lose, time has come!

But it’s not just changes in design that cause animals to pull their tongue over their eyes. Sometimes it's just thirst. The Namibian web-toed gecko has turned its unblinking eyes into a desert survival tool. At dawn, he simply takes and collects dew with his whole carcass, and then scratches it towards his brothers, who were doing the same thing. They collect precious water from each other, and a decent portion of this moisture accumulates before our eyes.





An eco-friendly way to collect water has been found!