Mountain rats have their own toilets

Whenever you want to "resolve the sadness", the rat rises to the mountain to climb up the warm tree again. On it they enjoy a free meal before sitting in the "toilet" and this habit also benefits plants because they take nutrients from the stool.

An immature Nepenthes lowii tree. Photo: wikipedia.com .

The plants of the warm lid ( Nepenthales ) produce two types of leaves, one of which functions to catch insects (warm pictures). On the outside, insect-like leaves look like small green moccasin shoes. The inside of the leaf is warm and has teeth. It is a circle containing small spines pointing downwards and surrounding the warm entrance. At the top of the kettle there is a lid to prevent rainwater (if too much rain water enters, the digestive enzymes will dissolve). The lid has innumerable translucent and translucent cells, so insects easily mistake it as an array of sky.

When the prey falls on the leaf, the cap will quickly face down so it cannot escape. The prey will then slide down to the petiole, where many digestive enzymes are waiting. But recently biologists from the University of Cambridge (UK) and Royal Roads University (Canada) discovered that having a warmed plant only 'eats' animal manure rather than catching insects. That's Nepenthes lowii .

When it is not yet mature, Nepenthes lowii grows on the ground and catches insects. But in adulthood they cling to vines and higher plants. The research team installed multiple cameras to monitor the activity of many of these trees in a high mountain forest of Borneo Island, Indonesia.

The mouse rattles the mountain and licks the honey on the underside of the lid while expelling the body's waste into warmth.Photo: Livescience.

The videos show that mountain rats ( Tupaia montana ) often jump on trees, lick bile on the underside of the lid, and release the fertilizer in the warm. Even a video shows that mice also mark trees that they often climb by rubbing their genitalia into the lid before falling. That behavior shows that each child only attaches to a certain "toilet".

' It's basically an ideal toilet for mice. There they have just eaten, and feel safe. We did not see warm leaves catching insects. Apparently they lost that ability, ' said Jonathan Moran, a scientist at Royal Roads University.

After careful consideration, scientists found that the leaves of Nepenthes lowii have evolved a lot to absorb nutrients from the feces. For example, the inside of the warm is not as smooth as the warmth of insect-catching species. Thanks to that, the mice are not in danger if they accidentally fall into the warm. In the warm there is a groove so the stool can float down to the end of the warm when it rains. Warm always grows at the end of leaves and must bear the weight of mountain rats (about 150 g). So it is very hard, tough and has many branches.

The mountain rat will never mistake their familiar 'toilet' with normal leaves, because the position of the lid and the warm make sure that the animals always turn their butt towards the warm as they lick their lids in the lid. .

According to Moran, the ability to absorb nutrients from animal manure is of great significance for plants when they live in mountains, where insects are rare. The team found that rat droppings met 57-100% of the plant's nitrogen needs.