Background
The gustatory abilities of manatees are unknown.
It has been suggested that a convergent reduction in taste in marine mammals happened due to the constraints of their environment, but also due to a change in diet and their way of eating their food (often swallowing the food whole).
However, as manatees are herbivores, they might have gustatory abilities suited to detecting plant-related compounds, potentially differing from the reduced sense of taste observed in other marine mammals.
Manatees are thought to rely on their sense of taste to:
- Assess the safety and palatability of food
- Distinguish saltwater gradients and find freshwater sources
- Interact with conspecifics
Aims
The aims of this project were:
1. To assess if manatees possess the capability to perceive the 5 basic taste qualities: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.
2. To identify for which of these taste qualities manatees may display a preference for or avoidance to.
So, what exactly did I do? Let’s go to the Material & Methods!