shrews in Nepenthes ventricosa x ephippiata

[pygo]

hi all,

today in my greenhouse i dicovered 3 shrews in a pitcher of ventricosa x ephippiata

the pitcher with shrews inside

shrews during digestion

 

[zlookup]

Poor shrews. Have a hedgehog (part of the shrew family) for a pet, so its a bit sad to see.

 

[Smitty]

Wild and Crazy! I love my Vent x ephippiata even more now....just will have to keep my daughters small rodents away from it!

 

[DragonsEye]

Pity. Shrews are excellant rodent killers.

 

[Brie]

oh man I bet that smelled fantastic...

 

[mass]

ewww.... that's gotta smell like roses I'm sure.

 

[B0B]

yummy! well if you ever go hungry at least you know you got a plant that can help you catch food

 

[amphirion]

hahahahaha! NOT what i was expecting at all!
what i was expecting was one of those in-situ photos of tree shrews taking a crap in a nepenthes toilet.

blew my mind.
that being said, it seems the temperate cousins fail at what their tropical ones do all the time. XD

 

[lance]

Wow! Quite a rare thing to find an animal that big in a pitcher... I usually find nothing bigger than a lizard.

 

[Exo]

Shrew stew.....

 

[Cthulhu138]

There's documentation of shrews being found in pitchers of both N. ephippiata and N. lowii on a regular basis in wild populations. They're apparently very attracted by the heavy secretions under the lid. It's really interesting to see it in cultivated plants as well.

 

[jht-union]

Huh, very nice! Can't wait for my Rajah to grow that big!

 

[Wire Man]

How big is that pitcher? I'm surprised you found one, let alone three, in there.

 

[ErrorEN]

I know what I wanna get now..

 

[Nep Lover]

wow nice find, but at the same time poor shrews but thats nature for ya

 

[Nepenthesis]

Three shrews, one pitcher.

Must be an awfully big pitcher! Do you have a size on that? Looks pretty big for ventricosa or an ephippiata.