Pity the Penguin Who Cannot Taste Ice Cream

Do you have penguin envy? Have you ever dreamed about the easy living of most penguins?

No?

Didn’t think so.

Here’s a reason to have sympathy, rather than envy, for the penguin. Penguins apparently cannot taste ice cream. We’ll say it again: PENGUINS APPARENTLY CANNOT TASTE ICE CREAM. This according to a University of Michigan researcher who is publishing a paper on the subject.

The researcher calls the findings “surprising”. Think about the poor penguins! Imagine getting the opportunity to try ice cream, which probably does not happen all that often for penguins, and being unable to taste the ice cream.

It seems penguins may have lost their taste for several types of food over the course of their migration to cold climates and through simple (well, maybe not simple) evolution.

Ice cream is not often eaten in bitter cold, so penguins have not been able to truly adapt to how ice cream tastes.

This is really too bad for the penguins because ice cream tastes delicious. Imagine not being able to enjoy Praline’s ice cream. What if your taste buds did not allow you to appreciate Beez Neez or Salty Caramel ice cream? We’re shuddering just thinking about it.

This is just another reason to be glad you’re not a penguin.