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I think the Sarlacc from "Star Wars" is the most fearsome creature ever imagined

Wolfn

Agent of Chaos
I think the Sarlacc from "Star Wars" is the most fearsome creature ever imagined

So yeah, I was watching a youtube video of a mouse falling into a Nepenthes pitcher plant, and one of the comments was that the pitcher plant worked like the Sarlacc from "Star Wars"

I did some research on the Sarlacc and thought "OMG, this is horrible!"

Basically, the Sarlacc swallows you alive, and when you fall into the digestive chamber, these things come out of the stomach and hold you against the wall. They dig into your flesh and inject you with liquids to keep you alive for thousands of years as you are slowly digested.

Holy crap, who thought of this?!? :0o:

Sarlacc_Body.jpg
 
loke it love it cool stuff wolfn
thanks .
im also a fan !
 
wow thats crazyyy
 
Except assuming that most of the "human" characters in Star Wars are essentially normal humans..
they dont live longer than 100 years anyway, under the best of conditions..
so the "slowly digested over 1,000 years" part never made any sense to me! ;)

Scot

The Sarlacc injects you with liquids to keep the victim alive for a thousand years (or longer).


However, Star Wars is all fantasy, but even still, damn that's a creepy thought.
 
The Sarlacc injects you with liquids to keep the victim alive for a thousand years (or longer).

oh!..well ok, I guess that makes it a little scarier I guess..
but the thing is, none of that was ever explained in the movie!
this is the first I have heard of these methods for keeping the victim alive..

When I first saw Return of the Jedi, (Summer of 1983, I was 14) and I first saw that scene,
I immediately thought "well that doesnt make any sense..you cant live for 1,000 years anyway!) which forever made the Sarlacc "non-scary" to me.. ;)
its too late now..I cant be re-scared! ;)

but still..yeah, its a pretty creepy thought!
(sorry Wolfin, didnt mean to shoot down your idea!
but you are fighting 30 years of ingrained Star Wars culture! ;)

I suppose a mouse could live for awhile inside a Nepenthes pitcher..while it is technically being digested..it has water and food (bugs)..

Are there documented cases of this happening? :0o:

Scot
 
I suppose a mouse could live for awhile inside a Nepenthes pitcher..while it is technically being digested..it has water and food (bugs)..

Are there documented cases of this happening? :0o:

Scot

Well, mice can't swim and they quickly drown inside a pitcher. Even if the liquid was shallow enough, it would die of exhausting trying to climb out. Once the mouse dies, digestion begins....
 
LOL if it was smaller then we could keep it in a pot and it wouldn't eat...just thinkinh though...would be a great CP if it was smaller hahah
 
  • #10
Well, mice can't swim and they quickly drown inside a pitcher. Even if the liquid was shallow enough, it would die of exhausting trying to climb out. Once the mouse dies, digestion begins....

I doubt a pitcher would be big enough, and hold enough water, for a mouse to actually drown..
and after awhile, if it couldnt climb out, it might settle down and eat or drink..
so im not sure either of those theorys would necessarily be true..

but..

wouldnt little mouse claws and teeth be able to easily eat or claw through a Nepenthes pitcher?
I dont see any reason a mouse couldnt just claw through the wall and escape..

many insects cant, because they dont have the proper body parts to do it..
but mammals have teeth and claws..

so is a Nep "eating" a mouse even plausible?

Scot
 
  • #11
Made by the same person:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NJCaG4tOaAU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NJCaG4tOaAU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_j-qJ_0qroc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_j-qJ_0qroc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
  • #12
hmm..I dont know..im still highly skeptical.

the first video just shows a mouse falling into a pitcher..
sure a mouse can fall in! ;)
but what happens next?

yes, the 2nd video appears to show that a Nep pitcher can digest a mouse..
but that, alone, isnt surprising..
but it still doesnt prove the trap caught, killed, and then digested a living mouse, with no human intervention..it would be easy to just plop a dead mouse into a trap..

so sorry, but im still not convinced..
I still dont see any reason why a mouse couldnt easily and quickly claw its way through the pitcher wall..
mice can eat through your home's foundation..I dont see paper-thin leaves being much of a challenge.

Scot

---------- Post added at 10:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 PM ----------

Well, mice can't swim and they quickly drown inside a pitcher.

Mice can swim:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zUQVDA13NcE&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zUQVDA13NcE&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

if there was enough water that it couldnt touch bottom, it would be clawing at the sides of the pitcher with its sharp claws..which could easily rip into the side of the pitcher and open it up.
 
  • #13
Oh, I'm not saying that they couldn't escape, but I believe that it's possibly that they might not be able to escape, either.

And by the way, the videos were made by the same person. ;) So the mouse fell in by itself (placed near by the plant, obviously) and died in the trap, and didn't escape.

Edit: So, I do believe it is possible, with support from the videos, that mice can indeed die before being able to break through the trap (if attempted). However, human intervention could have been possible behind the scenes, but I doubt it.
 
  • #14
not every mouse that falls into a pitcher drowns and dies but im sure some do......aint all that hard to drown.....big pitcher, mouse can see light above its gonna panic and keep struggling for light, its not gonna stop and think bout chewing through the side though it is physically capable of doing so, its gonna keep trying for the light at the end of the tunnel till it either escapes via it or gets wore out, and drowns and dies.....put it in a pitcher with no fluid or a fluid low enough it can touch it wont panic and will chew itself an exit.....
 
  • #15
i like how this went from star wars to mice
 
  • #16
And by the way, the videos were made by the same person. ;) So the mouse fell in by itself (placed near by the plant, obviously) and died in the trap, and didn't escape.

Edit: So, I do believe it is possible, with support from the videos, that mice can indeed die before being able to break through the trap (if attempted). However, human intervention could have been possible behind the scenes, but I doubt it.


1. the guy *just happened* to have the video camera handy at the exact moment the mouse accidently fell in? thats quite a coincidence.

2. If it was a pet,.wouldnt he fish it right out? (if falling in was a legit accident)
if he chose to let his pet mouse die and not help it, the guy is scum.

3. the odds of the whole thing being faked are MUCH higher than it being real..
come on..its youtube! its the internet! ;)
of course its faked..

those videos "support" absolutely nothing..

and there is zero reason the mouse couldnt quickly and easily claw through before it drowned..there are other videos of swimming mice on youtube..swimming around swimming pools, across small streams..etc..they can swim MUCH longer than it would take to rip some flimsy thin leaves with sharp rodent claws..

time a mouse can swim = dont know for sure..but at least a minute..probably much longer.
time it would take to rip through a nepenthes leaf with sharp mouse claws = 2 seconds.

think about it..mouse claws..rodent claws..rodent teeth...all very sharp.
compared to strength of a leaf..

do you honestly believe a mouse cant rip a leaf to shreds in seconds?
come on..the logic is undeniable..

Scot

---------- Post added at 10:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 PM ----------

not every mouse that falls into a pitcher drowns and dies but im sure some do......aint all that hard to drown.....big pitcher, mouse can see light above its gonna panic and keep struggling for light, its not gonna stop and think bout chewing through the side though it is physically capable of doing so, its gonna keep trying for the light at the end of the tunnel till it either escapes via it or gets wore out, and drowns and dies.....put it in a pitcher with no fluid or a fluid low enough it can touch it wont panic and will chew itself an exit.....

nope..sorry..I still cant buy it.
it would be clawing at the sides of the pitcher with its front and rear feet..
even if its trying to get "up to the light"..
like in the swimming mouse video..it would naturally GO to the edges to try to get a grip on the walls! its the only it *can* try to get a grip on, so of course its feet are going to be brusing up against the side..
and it would be using its claws to try to "climb out"..its claws will quickly and easily rip right through the leaf.
if its bottom claws rip a hole, the pitcher will quickly drain..its front claws will also quickly rip holes as it tries to climb up the walls to escape..it would definitely use its claws to try to climb out..the claws cant grip into a plexiglass lab container, but it can easily poke right through a flimsy leaf..

no pitcher is big enough that the mouse would be swimming way out in the middle of a vast expanse of water, far from the edges..its little claws would be flailing all over the sides of the pitcher..they will very quickly rip holes all though it..

I dont see any possible way a mouse could drown in a nepenthes pitcher..
its not big enough, there isnt enough water, and the sides of the pitcher offer zero resistance to rodent claws..

Scot
 
  • #17
1. the guy *just happened* to have the video camera handy at the exact moment the mouse accidently fell in? thats quite a coincidence.
Um. What? Of course it wasn't on accident. It's obvious he placed a mouce on his plant and waited for it fall...

2. If it was a pet,.wouldnt he fish it right out? (if falling in was a legit accident)
if he chose to let his pet mouse die and not help it, the guy is scum.
Or it probably wasn't his pet and he was just feeding his spathulata with a mouse . ;)

3. the odds of the whole thing being faked are MUCH higher than it being real..
come on..its youtube! its the internet! ;)
of course its faked..
Yes, the odds are much higher that it's fake. But that still doesn't mean it's 100% fake, however. It could very well be real, because I doubt he could fake a mouse carcass. Whether or not the mouse died with human intervention or video taker left his plant alone, it's unknown. But I believe the carcass is real.

those videos "support" absolutely nothing..

and there is zero reason the mouse couldnt quickly and easily claw through before it drowned..there are other videos of swimming mice on youtube..swimming around swimming pools, across small streams..etc..they can swim MUCH longer than it would take to rip some flimsy thin leaves with sharp rodent claws..

time a mouse can swim = dont know for sure..but at least a minute..probably much longer.
time it would take to rip through a nepenthes leaf with sharp mouse claws = 2 seconds.

think about it..mouse claws..rodent claws..rodent teeth...all very sharp.
compared to strength of a leaf..

do you honestly believe a mouse cant rip a leaf to shreds in seconds?
come on..the logic is undeniable..

Scot
Do you honestly believe I'm disagreeing with you that a mouse can escape? Of course I have logic and understand that mice can rip themselves free. I never said that they couldn't. I even said that they could (not directly, anyway). And I also know that they can swim, as most animals can. Even then, there probably isn't that much fluid for them to even swim! But of course, as mentioned by rattler, panic and shock can come into play and possibly drown a mouse (if there's enough fluids). So there's not much of a point on telling me that a mouse can escape through a pitcher if I already know and understand that. ;) But even though they have the ability to, it does NOT mean EVERY single mouse will escape.

Edit: Also, pitchers such as truncata are definitely not "flimsy", but woody, which I believe a mouse would have a hard time going through with its claws and position.
And yes, I do believe we're getting a bit off topic, so I suppose we should just end this...
 
  • #18
I think the Rancor is way scarier:

Yes, because it is mobile. The other thing isn't scary at all since, well... I would just avoid going near that big pit.

However, Star Wars is all fantasy, but even still, damn that's a creepy thought.

Depends on to whom you speak.

xvart.
 
  • #19
funny-pictures-relevant-to-my-interests.jpg



I like the original Star Wars Sarlacc better, the one without the beak. The new re-done one with the beak looks all CG'd and stupid.
Where did you see that it keeps victims alive for thousands of years? I've never read that, and I'm pretty sure they don't tell you anything about it in the movie.


------
Edit-

Scotty, I'm pretty sure I remember the maker of the video explaining everything on another forum awhile ago. It was set up (he bought/found the mouse, set up the camera, and placed it on the peristome to fall in), but he definitely didn't take it out afterwords.

A different German grower (actually might be the same guy, can't remember.. lol) says that he frequently finds dead field mice in the pitchers of his greenhouse grown truncata. He can tell whenever one has been captured by the smell.
 
  • #20
I for one am a Sarlacc fan!

I buried almost every one of my SW figures as a kid playing Sarlacc pit out in the sandbox - they're probably even still there! Where did that full page diagram of a Sarlacc come from?

On the other hand my fave SW movie was The Empire Strikes Back, I just loved the AT-ATs and AT-STs and I still do! I've been tempted to buy one of those reissued AT-STs toys but $45 seems like a lot and I am TRYING to stop collecting useless crap! :D
 
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