A new study has found that penguins can't detect the savoury taste of fish.
There are five tastes mammals like humans can detect – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami, the latter of which gives meat its flavour.
But researchers have revealed that the flightless bird can only taste salty and sour flavours.
Steve Pointing, director of AUT's Applied Ecology Institute, says every other bird can taste all the flavours, except sweetness.
So why can't penguins, who feast on fish, taste umami?
In other science news, researchers have made breakthroughs in understanding how certain microbes digest oil, saving beaches from the worst effects of oil spills.
But what effect will the new bacteria have in the long-term?
Watch the video for the full interview.
source: newshub archive
