Ecotasia's video: The Carnivorous Pitcher Plants of Mount Kinabalu - What are they Eating

Few places are as famous for Carnivorous plants as Mt Kinabalu in Borneo. This is the world of Nepenthes pitchers. Some are big enough to predate not only on insects but on rats. Pitcher plants lure their prey with sweet smells and sugary nectar. So what are pitcher plants up here eating? Well let's try our best to peer into murky depths and see... Thanks to the Wildlife Brothers for Footage of some Wild North American Carnivorous Plants Sources: 1. Bauer, U., & Federle, W. (2009). The insect-trapping rim of Nepenthes pitchers. Plant Signaling & Behavior, 4(11), 1019–1023. https://doi.org/10.4161/psb.4.11.9664 2. Grafe, T. U.; Schoner, C. R.; Kerth, G.; Junaidi, A. & Schoner, M. G. (2011). "A novel resource-service mutualism between bats and pitcher plants". Biology Letters. 7 (3): 436–439. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.1141. PMC 3097880. PMID 21270023. 3. Cross, A. T., Krueger, T. A., Gonella, P. M., Robinson, A. S., & Fleischmann, A. S. (2020). Conservation of carnivorous plants in the age of extinction. Global Ecology and Conservation, 24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01272 4. Mele, Christopher (28 November 2016). "Venus Flytraps Need Protection From Poachers in North Carolina". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 December 2019. 0:00 Watching and Reacting to The Little Shop of Horrors 2:25 The Nepenthes of Mount Kinabalu 2:50 How Pitcher Plants Work 3:49 What are Pitcher Plants Eating? 4:08 Pitcher Plant Symbiosis? 5:00 Carnivorous Plant Conservation 6:59 Outro 7:06 Next Time and End Card I try to achieve the most well researched content I can, that said it is impossible to create content that is exhaustive on a given topic and therefore I implore you to investigate a given topic further. Welcome to Ecotasia! On this channel you can find wildlife footage and short documentaries on the natural world. I am an early career biologist who was inspired by the likes of the BBC Natural History unit, PBS, and Animal Planet as a child and then more recently by various nature YouTube channels to share my love for animals and nature. My goal is to document and highlight the interesting ecology and behavior of organisms I encounter, as well as cover and elucidate conservation and biological topics. Please Subscribe so you can join me to marvel and to learn twice a month. Underwater Worlds https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYx5OP7sbAZAJNusnxcNoHUx_sNDYT92k Journey through the Undergrowth (Macro footage of insects and Arachnids) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYx5OP7sbAZC-4h2hpK09I-FF563TQzlc Bird Playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZqNM9k7OoY&list=PLYx5OP7sbAZACa11LD1wDQhn0SI2-SV1f Birding Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYx5OP7sbAZAYjq78IuGJI4wc0GXDRHTd Conservation Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYx5OP7sbAZAIUm5UCl84q2KU2nI3YLpx