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Hey there Head Squeezers, I hope you're well. I've been really looking forward to this one,
it comes in via YouTube from hsusan802 who asks Can Animals Taste? Well the simple answer
is yes and there are loads of members of the animal kingdom who have more sensitive sense
of taste than us. Give us a thumbs up if your life wouldn't be complete without the taste
of a Friday evening curry or a lovely Sunday lunch.
But what is taste? It is essentially it is the ability to perceive the impact of molecules
through your nose or your tongue. Because on your tongue there is a whole load of taste
buds and each taste bud is kindof like a little bucket, and moving molecules fall into that
bucket and they get picked up by nerve endings and that sends a signal to your brain which
you receive as taste. Anything which makes those molecules move around more freely like
heat will intensify the taste. Just think of the difference between a plate of hot chips
and some cold chips. But we don't just eat for pleasure. Eating
helps us and animals work out what is a good source of energy. We don't want to eat something
poisonous or rotten that may damage us. Let's have a look at a lion. A lion has about 470
taste buds all he needs to eat is meat and he just needs to know whether it's rancid
or not. A human has around 10,000 taste buds because we eat, vegetables, fruit, grain,
we eat all sorts of things and we probably sense 5 different flavours, 6, 7, 8, anyway
that's a whole new film, send in that question. Anyway, what about a pig? A pig is an omnivore,
it's got about 15,000 taste buds, but to find the leader of the pack we need to go deep
down into the ocean and look at the catfish. Not the prettiest of amphibians I think you'll
agree but it can have up to 175,000 taste buds, mainly over its gill arches and its
barbells, their four fleshy whiskers. And those taste buds are all over its body, the
reason for that is that it spend it's time down in murky muddy waters so that is how
it perceives it's environment so it can find it's way around. Pretty cool.
Now the animal right down at the bottom of the pecking order with 20- 30 taste buds is
the humble chicken. The one I like to have on my Sunday dinner. Sorry buddy. Now if you
like animal related questions we've done a whole bunch here on Head Squeeze from Do Dolphin's
Sleep to Are Zebra's White with Black Stripes or Black with White Stripes? A classic. So
go and check out one of those and until next time happy Head Squeezing.