Tree shrews can tolerate hot peppers: Mutation in pain receptor makes peppery plant palatable

Date:  July 12, 2018

Source:  PLOS

Almost all mammals avoid eating chili peppers and other "hot" foods, because of the pain they induce. But not the tree shrew, according to a study publishing July 12 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Yalan Han of the Kunming Institute of Zoology in China, and colleagues. The researchers found that this close relative of primates is unaffected by the active ingredient in chili peppers due to a subtle mutation in the receptor that detects it. They speculate that this is an evolutionary adaptation to enable tree shrews to cope with a peppery plant that makes up part of their diet.

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Chili Pepper Fences Keep Elephants At Bay

Elephants never forget -- especially about the burning intensity of chili peppers.

And that fiery fact is helping farmers in Tanzania, who are being forced to deal with rebounding elephant populations coming onto their land and eating up their crops.

That's a big problem since the giant pachyderms can eat up to 660 pounds of food a day, according to Newser.

Electric fences have been deemed too dangerous and expensive, but farmers have found good results from a lower-tech solution: chili peppers mixed with engine oil -- a spicy concoction that sticks to fences, even in heavy rain.

"[The elephants] will mull it over and often circle two to three times," farmer Said Longwa, 52, told the Wall Street Journal. "But once they get a real whiff of the chili, they snuffle and sneeze."

Even better: They leave.

Continued:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/elephants-chili-pepper-fences_n_1428898.html?ref=weird-news