• Beldarofremulak@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Huh… You made me look up birds sense of taste and it varies from dozens to hundreds of taste buds. Humans have thousands and catfish have over 100,000. Neat!

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      As a hot pepper fanatic, I love this trivia:

      Birds don’t have receptors for capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers hot. They could chow a bag of Moruga Scorpions with zero effect.

      Evolution’s idea being, birds will swallow the seeds whole, poop them all around. Mammals will chew them up and destroy the seeds, so they evolved a defense specifically against us.