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How do smells and tastes help animals find and choose food?
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Chemoreception
Animals, such as this pine grosbeak, use chemoreception to respond to chemicals that can be tasted and smelled in their environments. Many of these chemicals affect behaviors such as food preference and defense.
Animals use chemoreceptionāthe process of responding to chemical stimuliāto locate, evaluate, and select food sources through the senses of smell (olfaction) and taste (gustation).12
Locating and Assessing Food
- Distance Detection: Animals often use their sense of smell to detect volatile chemicals from potential food sources at a distance, helping them navigate toward resources.32
- Acceptability: Once an animal reaches a food item, close-range odors and taste work together to determine if the food is acceptable. While visual cues are significant for many predators and birds, chemical signals remain primary for many species.3
- Nutritional Balancing: Animals often use taste and smell to balance their nutrient intake. For example, herbivores and omnivores frequently show a preference for sugars, while carnivores are stimulated by amino acids and proteins.3
Safety and Selection
- Toxin Detection: Many animals possess a highly developed ability to taste bitter substances, which often serves as a warning to avoid poisonous plants or chemicals.32
- Learning and Conditioning: Through experience, animals can learn to associate specific flavors or odors with positive nutritional outcomes or negative effects like illness, allowing them to refine their diet and avoid toxic substances over time.34
- Specialization: Some animals are "specialists" that are innately attracted to specific chemical signatures in their food, while "generalists" may sample novel foods and adjust their intake based on post-ingestive effects.3