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Things that plants have eaten

Ozzy

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Since there was so much intrest in things that have been found in Nepenthes I thought I would start this topic.
I'll move some of the posts from that topic here since it was a little off topic there.



droseradude
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Posted: Dec. 10 2003,6:10



Ahem. . . you forgot to say "MONKEY eating flora"
Actually, have neps devoured monkeys before?
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RamPuppy
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Posted: Dec. 10 2003,6:18



I think there is commentary somewhere on the internet about a couple who witnessed a park ranger pulling baby monkeys out of a nepenthes once...
 
pond boy
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Posted: Dec. 10 2003,8:22



That was in "the savage garden" I believe.,:p
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Darn owls!
 
goldtrap2690
Feed your plants or else this happens

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Posted: Dec. 10 2003,8:53



My uncle saw a guide pulling out rats and large insect out of the nepenthes pitchers when he was on mt. kinabalu , but i don't know if i ever remembered hearing him say anything about monkeys in the pitchers . i do remember however , about a person saying here on the forums that a park ranger pulled out baby monkeys out of nepenthes pitchers , some dead some still alive and the tourist were very upset and engrossed about it .:O
 
Heres a quote from The Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato, yeah like Pondboy said: (xiv) ". . . They told me with glee how they had recently returned from Malaysia, where they saw magnificent Nepenthes at a botanical garden. "We arrived early," the wife told me, "and we waited in line at the front gate. I peered through the fence, and saw these huge pitcher plants hanging in the trees. To my shock, an attendant was pullingtiny baby monkeys out of the traps! Most were alive, and scampered away. The dead ones he dropped in a pail. Her husband added that when they  later caught up with the attendant and asked him what he was doing, the emmbarrassed attendant explained that dead monkeys in the pitcher plants were upsetting to the tourists."

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That makes sence, many primates are very very small, with adults smaller than rats, babies would be very easy prey (although I would think the mom would pull the babies out so they probubly where very small adults like Tamerins(sp?) or something).

My plants:
Little gulp (Ventricosa) ate a HUGE! moth (I don't know how the thing even got past the waist in the trap), the moth got moldy. Then Little Gulp ate the mold! ROFL! Seriously, I watched it do it, it uped the juice and the mold just got digested along with the remaining moth parts! (was an old trap so I desided to watch what happened rather than remove the moth)

Sundewlings(before the horible mass death this spring) had this weird cycle going on with a fungi. The fungi would grow over them and they would dry out, then they would make new dewy leaves and eat the fungi. The fungi would eventually recover and dry them out and they cycle would continue... it was my attempts at killing the fungi that killed my seedlings :p

VFT's like betamax fish food
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Well I can't remember where I read it now, but somewhere I read that that monkey story is a myth.  One of those "urban legends" only I guess you'd call it a "jungle legend".  I mean, really...think about it.  Baby monkey's aren't natural prey to a nepenthes; monklettes would have to be pretty small to fit in even a large pitcher and the little babies spend most of their time clinging to their mothers; just how many baby monkeys (all the same age/size small enough to fit in a pitcher) do you think there would be at one time that would land in so many pitchers that someone would have to go clean the pitchers out... in one small area like that?  C'mon!

That's not to say odd things don't on rare occasions end up in pitchers, but I think its erroneous to say "Neps have been known to eat baby monkeys" like it happens all the time.  
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In my opinion, that monkey story is "spin" for tourists.

Hmmm...all of a sudden I want a banana...  
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Say it enough times and the monkey myth will come true sooner or later in someones mind.
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I am sure a N. Rajah could handle a baby monkey but not sure if they live together.

Travis
 
Don't forget their are full grown monkies out their the size of your thumb. If lizards and rodents and frogs can get in, so can the little primates.
 
  • #10
I remember reading about a vft that ate humans.If fact the human was none other than Barry Rice.
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He even had pictures to prove it.
That was just plain nasty.
 
  • #11
lol Ozzy. Now THAT isn't rumor...that's fact.
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I DID say that its possible some non-typical critters end up in nep pitchers from time to time. So I'm not discounting that somewhere, sometime, a hapless little creature (very small monkey or whatever) didn't fall into a pitcher. All I'm saying is that PARTICULAR story is most likely not true and has been stated as being a myth (wish I could remember where I read that).

I'm sure a nep would eat a thumb if you put one in a pitcher. Maybe that will be Barry's next experiment.
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  • #14
LOl. Hmmm.....where will Barry get that thumb? I hear-tell neps can digest chunks of beef dropped into pitchers.
 
  • #15
I can think of a couple of good places for that. Probably it would kill the plants though.
 
  • #16
I put one guppy in each of my bical's pitchers.
It digested the fish but all the pitchers rotted.
 
  • #17
Darcie you must have one big ### Thumb!
Id like to know what primate is stupid enough to fall or climb into a pitcher and wait to be digested.

Peace
 
  • #18
I think it would be similar to the warnings on 5 gallon buckets. You see the illustration of the toddler falling head first into the bucket. I think they could get trapped on the same principal.
I'm sure that many primates have tried to get a drink out of the pitcher or they see an insect struggling to get out and they reach in a little too far to get the insect.
I think it's very possible for a small primate to get stuck in a nepenthes trap.
 
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