Do Chickens Have Tongues?
There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the chickens, their taste buds, if they have tongues, etc. But the answer is that yes like other living organisms chickens also have a tongue. Their tongue is different from other organisms as it is slightly pointed towards the end. Chickens have a peculiar shape, and this makes their tongue unique.
As people believed that chickens do not have tongues they also assumed that the chickens do not have a sense of taste as the taste buds are located on the tongue. But as now we know that chickens have tongue it is right to say that they also have the sense of smell. Humans have 8,000 to 10,000 taste buds, and all of it is on the tongue. This makes it possible for humans to taste the food that we consume. However, chickens do not have a high number of taste buds. They have less than 350 taste buds which are very low if you compare it to humans or cows.
Also, most of the taste buds are located on the tongue in humans whereas in chickens only 2% of the taste buds are on the tongue and the rest are in the oral cavity. But the reduction in the number of the taste bud doesn’t take away the fact they can also taste everything just the way we do. Because of lesser taste buds, many people think of chickens as tasteless.
Carnivores have a higher number of taste buds such as cows have 25,000- 30,000 taste buds, but the omnivores such as chicken, pig, humans have lesser taste buds comparatively. Also as chicken has very sharp eyesight, they can see the texture and colour of the food. The number of taste buds also depends on the gender, age, breed of the chickens. Males have a higher number of taste buds as compared to female chickens.
Chickens can taste like humans like whatever appears sweet to us will taste sweet to chicken as well, and the same goes for sour taste. However, the chickens do not have a taste receptor for spicy food and hence cannot taste spicy food. This chicken can eat hot peppers and the capsaicin in the plants without any problem.
Thus chickens do have a tongue like humans and other living organisms. They also have a good number of taste buds and cannot be labelled as blind for the taste. If you want to notice it’s tongue you can do so when the chicken opens its mouth for eating.