Humans derive their sense of taste from tastebuds, which allow us to identify bitter, salty, sour, and sweet. In 1990, umami was identified as the fifth taste. Many animals also get their sense of taste through tastebuds, although there are other methods in the animal kingdom for identifying taste. Let’s take a look.
(Credit: MEDIAIMAG/Shutterstock)
MEDIAIMAG/Shutterstock
The animal with the best sense of taste is the catfish. Possessing over 100,000 (and in some cases up to 175,000) taste buds, also called receptors, catfish are sometimes referred to as swimming tongues. They have a widespread distribution of taste receptors, including receptors in their mouths, on their skin, fins, and whiskers.
On the other hand, birds have a poor sense of taste. Although they don’t have many tastebuds, they use their bills and tongues to determine a particular food’s texture and potential safety. Birds are immune to the damaging effects of capsaicin, ...
