(ELI5) Why do animals that live in the same environment and eat the same diet taste different? (For example sheep and cows)
In: Biology
Their biological processes and body compositions are different, so they might eat the same things but their body will process, distribute, and use things differently.
For the same reason strawberries and raspberries grown next to eachother in the same soil taste different.
They absorb nutrients at different rates and their internal chemistry turns these into different substances.
Going back to cows and sheep. They have bacteria in their stomach that help them digest food. They both have different kinds which digest food in different ways. Their stomachs are also different and their bodies as a whole are different. Like boiling or frying an egg. Same ingredients but different end results.
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Genetics dude! That’s the blueprint of any organism so, different species have different genetics ergo different flavors
Phenotype = Genotype + Environment. What you show is what your genes code plus what your environment gives them. If you are giving the same things to different animals, then it’s all about genetics.
They taste different because they are completely different species of animals. Two animals of the same species raised in the same environment eating the same diet should taste nearly the same barring genetic differences within a species.
Sheep and cows do not eat the same things. Cows are generally selective grazers (so only really eat grass) but sheep will eat anything that’s green and some stuff that isn’t. But maybe they are all brought up in barns and fed only soy now so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: brackets
Edit 2: Reddit is stupid and all I wanted was a shrug
Part of it has to do with their muscle structure. There are animals that taste like chicken because the muscle structure is close to chicken.
ELY5: When I was a boy, we had a peach tree in my backyard. It was next to some raspberry bushes. They grew in the same dirt and came to season at the same time. But one made peaches and the other made raspberries.
Animals are made of different stuff just like apples and raspberries.
I think maybe because they build different types of proteins and fats depends on their DNA?!
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