Nectar-feeding bats may have the most dynamic tongues in the mammal world, according to a new study.

Bats aren't dainty enough to perch on flower petals and leisurely sip nectar as bees and butterflies do, so they expend large amounts of energy hovering as they feed. They need to slurp nectar efficiently to make it worthwhile.

To find out how bat tongues may have evolved to expedite feeding and save energy, Brown University biologists used a high-speed video camera to catch the lapping action unfold. Each dip of the tongue occurs over the course of about one-tenth of a second; the camera collected footage at 500-frames per second.

Having examined hours of footage, the team found that tiny hair-like structures at the tips of the bat tongues work as 'nectar mops' to efficiently lap up fluid. As the tongue elongates, blood pumps into these hairs – or papillae – and makes them erect. These blood-pumping papillae are the first to be found in mammal tongues, the team reported on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

These ultra-efficient 'nectar mops' are much better at collecting liquid than, say, the bumps on a cat’s tongue. “It’s the difference between sticking a broom handle into the liquid and sticking a mop into the liquid,” co-author Elizabeth Brainerd told Wired.

Cally Harper, a graduate student at Brown University and lead author on the paper, hopes that their findings will eventually help improve surgical technology.

“The next step is to figure out if other nectar-feeding bats have tongues like this, and how these tongues can be used to inspire new technology,” Harper told Wired. “We think that technology modeled after these tongues could be used to create modified endoscopes that help doctors see the inside walls of intestines and arteries."