kqedscience:

Penguins Have Bad Taste

“There is no such thing as a food connoisseur penguin, suggests new research that found penguins can’t taste savory or sweet flavors. For the flightless, waddling birds, foods come in just two flavors — salty and sour — according to the new study, which is published in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology.

‘Penguins eat fish, so you would guess that they need the umami receptor genes, but for some reason they don’t have them,’ co-author Jianzhi “George” Zhang of the University of Michigan said in a press release. ‘These findings are surprising and puzzling, and we do not have a good explanation for them. But we have a few ideas.’”

Read more at discoverynews.