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Watch: Carnivorous Canadian plant eats baby salamanders
Biologists have discovered a salamander-eating plant in a Canadian provincial park. Researchers monitoring carnivorous northern pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea purpurea L.) in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario found baby salamanders — sometimes multiple individuals and many of them dead — in a number of different pitcher plants during surveys in 2017 and 2018. They concluded that these amphibians, based on the number found, must provide a substantial nutrient source for the plants. A professor involved in the study said in a statement that the salamanders likely ended up in these pitfall traps while fleeing predators or by being lured by insects.
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Header Image: A salamander is trapped in a pitcher plant. Researchers in Ontario have discovered a pitcher plant that relies on salamanders for some of the nutrients it needs. ©M. Alex Smith
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