Animals dont eat it; it eats animals.
And there's one right here.
Watch.
This is Venus's flytrap.
It shapes its traps from the ends of its leaves.
One or two hairs on their surface act as triggers.
Here comes a meal.
Touch the hair and the trap is sprung.
There's now no escape.
The beetle's struggles stimulate the plant to close the trap even more tightly.
It now produces digestive acids from glands on the inner surface of the leaf,
which first kill and then dissolve its victim's body.
Growing in the same Carolina swamp, there's another carnivorous plant.
These are the trumpet pitchers.
They, like the Venus's flytrap,
find so little nutriment in this impoverished water-logged soil
that they supplement it with the bodies of animals.
Their traps are also formed from leaves,
but leaves that have been folded lengthways
to make a vertical tube which fills with water.
(birds chirping, insects buzzing]
These spectacular trumpets may look like flowers,
but, of course, they're not.
Though in a sense, this bright yellow top to them
serves the same purpose as a petal.
It's an advertisement of a delicious reward.
And the reward itself is under here.
Sweet nectar.
But if an insect comes to collect it,
and strays into the mouth of the trumpet,
then it's doomed.
(Dramatic music, animal noises)
The inside of the throat of the trumpet
is covered with microscopic downward-pointing spines.
As long as it stays on the rim, the ant is alright.
But if it strays off it...
it falls into a pond of water and drowns.
The tiny corpse dissolves
and the marsh pitcher absorbs the resulting soup.
And where one ant goes, others are likely to follow.
(dramatic music continues)
The marsh pitcher attracts other animals too.
This frog may be hoping to eat some of the insects before the pitcher does,
but if it loses its footing, the plant will eat it.