I have a row of 7 mature apple trees up against a woods line, all are good eating apples and pretty much taste the same to me, of those seven trees there is one standout tree that never has an apple rotting on the ground and anything within standing height gets taken from the tree. There will be apples on the ground around the others and this one tree is picked clean. I lost my map for the back line of trees years ago so I can only guess the variety but honestly there is not much taste or sweetness difference between most of the trees yet year after year it gets priority for munching. Its not an end tree but one in the middle so they have to walk by the others.
Its kind of crazy but they know what they want and skip the others - I wonder if the tree has a different aroma? Something pulls them to it well before they get a taste and once they do they clean it up first.