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Larger animals tend to more intelligent - presumably there’s a natural limit to the size of prey a carnivorous plant can reliably catch from a static location.
by leoedin 1y ago
Larger animals tend to more intelligent - presumably there’s a natural limit to the size of prey a carnivorous plant can reliably catch from a static location.
- IAmBroom 1y agoCounterpoint: mice and at least one monkey baby have died in pitcher plants in the wild.
- jonplackett 1y agoIsn’t this still just the original point though, mice ain’t that big!
- IAmBroom 1y agoWe're using different criteria for "big".
- imtringued 1y agoA lot of pitcher plants evolved to be a toilet for shrews.
- HelloNurse 1y agoLarger animals are highly undesirable prey because they tend to be able to free themselves from a carnivorous plant (low value), with a high probability of severe damage to the plant in the attempt (high cost): they can just walk or climb away, but also involuntarily break a stalk with their weight, tear open a sac with talons, rip away slowly regenerated adhesive parts, eat something that should be dangerous, and so on.