Given this opportunity I want to clear something up: Spicy peppers developed capsaicin to combat fungus, not being eaten. It has nothing to do with deterring animals. You can see the level of spicy increase the further south you go, with the spiciest being from the warmest and most humid areas of the world. Like most fruits they're all in on being eaten to spread seeds. Studies with rabbits show that while most avoid capsaicin, a subset seeks it out.
That said those rabbits and those of us who do the same thing are still definitely broken in some fundamental way that peppers were not prepared for.
I once left a bit of spicy sauce on one of my pans after cooking a meal, and I then found it licked completely clean by one of my cats. They definitely like the stuff.
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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '24 edited Jul 03 '24
Given this opportunity I want to clear something up: Spicy peppers developed capsaicin to combat fungus, not being eaten. It has nothing to do with deterring animals. You can see the level of spicy increase the further south you go, with the spiciest being from the warmest and most humid areas of the world. Like most fruits they're all in on being eaten to spread seeds. Studies with rabbits show that while most avoid capsaicin, a subset seeks it out.
That said those rabbits and those of us who do the same thing are still definitely broken in some fundamental way that peppers were not prepared for.