>

My father used to have this little vegetable garden in their ranger station, and some goats got in and ate everything except the hot peppers. 
As punishment, his buddy crushed some and put it on the goat's mouth. They were laughing because the goat was "running against the wind with it's mouth open". 
Few days later, the goats returned and ate all the peppers. 🤣🤣🤣
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The spiciness is to protect from animals that aren't birds. Birds don't have capsaicin receptors and poop out the seeds whole, allowing them to spread.
Other animals chew and digest seeds, so aren't ideal candidates to propagate the plants.
Jokes on them though. Humans love spicy food and grow them willingly. >

Jokes on us. The most successful creatures on the planet are those we consume and farm...
Avocado would be extinct if humans didn't cultivate it. (Would be extinct because we killed the hosts, but that's not the point)
Wheat, maze, rice, rye, and so on, are not exactly in danger of going extinct.
Gorilla, smart and strong? Almost extinct. Lions, big and ferocious? Critically endangered. Cows, big and delicious? Population: 2 billion.
I am sure peppers have a great time >

I love the story of avocados because the animal that ate and propagated them before us was like an 8 foot sloth. >

And we propagate them trough farming. They propagated them trough their ass >

Their species is now planted and grown in large quantities by humans. So really, as far as propagation goes, this is an evolutionary win. >

And humans work hard to make sure the plants thrive and are protected from predatory pests.
Like all cultivated crops and domesticated animals, peppers have managed to secure the world’s top predator as their personal guard. Not bad. >

Well on the other hand, we plant them so much because of this, so i guess its an evolutionary win!\^\^ >

The best thing a life form can hope for, is to be liked by humans. >

Unless its a poached animal, or rare ground truffles >

True, there are exceptions.
But to be fair, most humans hate poachers. >

I wonder if there's a market for lab-grown rhino horn? >

Actually, a couple of years ago some people replicated rhino horn in a lab so closely, that they flooded the market with cheap af synthetic rhino horn that it pretty much permanently disrupted the market.
IIRC. >

Common science W >

And we will make sure they never go extinct. So they a total succsess for them ig >

Sometimes it's easiest to develop in a way that is interesting at the risk of handing being present and evolution is a lot more about that.
It's about staying around one way or the other.
So it makes sense to say that they aren't trying to avoid being eaten, they wanted to avoid being eaten to much if you ask me. 
I mean the plant is aware it wants to grow again. >

And now they're wildly prolific due to human cultivation. Failed successfully indeed. >

I know I’m super late on this. But it’s not actually animals they are worried about, it’s fungus. Natural pepper plants in wetter areas are noticeably spicier than those in dry environments. While it is useful to deter mammals with their grinding teeth, they would still survive to an extent. Basically repelling mammals is something that happened to occur while the plant was trying to protect their seeds from fungus. >

Chili peppers were originally bland, and were cultivated by humans for thousands of years to select for spiciness. The natural intention is for the fruits to be eaten and have their seeds spread. >

Capsaicin's evolutionary purpose is to prevent non-avian animals from eating them. >

Possibly someone's intent at one time. But it's illogical to assign purpose to mutations. It only has purpose if someone intentionally mutated it. Which humans can do, but it's likely not something plant's can do. >

The "purpose" of a trait is the reason that trait flourished. The purpose of eyes is to detect light because the ability to detect light was beneficial. The purpose of capsaicin is to scare off less effective seed spreaders because that is a trait that succeeded. No one is saying that it was designed that way. >

Capsaicin does scare off predators, it also happens attracts others, and some predators are  indifferent to it. But those are the choices of the predator. Not the pepper. 
In the end, It flourished because it positively effected reproduction of the trait. 
It's not because the pepper plant wanted to live. But because survivable traits propagate. 
I know you get that concept. I'm trying to drive home the point that mutations are random. They have no intent. >

It's spicy so that birds eat them. It's litterally the goal for a fruit to be eaten. Evolution is successful again >

No, it's spicy so that non-birds don't eat them. Birds can't detect the spiciness, so they eat them and spread them far and wide. >

It's spicy BECAUSE spicy peppers were able to continue reproducing. 
They didn't evolve on purpose. At least that's not  falsifiable. 
It's a side effect of having a survivable trait. The same trait can be both survivable and not survivable based on outside factors. 
That's why non spicy peppers still exist, and thrive. Being non-spicy can also be a survivable trait. >

That quality has also caused people to intentionally cultivate them, which is probably an evolutionary win.