A Pitcher Plant Catches a Bird

I have a rather predictable affinity for carnivorous plants, and not just because I'm morbid and strange, which I am. But because they are without question some of the most unique organisms on the planet, and I happen to think they're pretty. What? I said I was strange.

Though they do not necessarily require animal proteins to stay alive. Carnivorous plants, like the pitcher plants seen above, have evolved a number of methods for trapping insects and other small animals, which they then breakdown using digestive enzymes, in order to supplement their diets to make up for the lack of nutrients present in the soil in which they typically grow. While they usually only manage to catch smaller creatures like insects and frogs. Pitcher plants, which tend to grow larger than other varieties of carnivorous plants, have been known to catch larger animals like mice, and even rats.

The above photo is believed to be only the second ever documented case of a pitcher plant eating a bird, which presumably became trapped while trying to pull out insects floating in the liquid inside the plant.

-CAINE-

Source: BBC News