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Nepenthes carnivorous plants look like toilets, trapping insects and other small creatures in a bowl-shaped pitcher with an overhanging lid. But some species of nepenthes growing on mountains in Borneo have given up carnivory and instead encourage animals to poo in their pitchers.
This toilet habit was discovered when mountain tree shrews were found sitting on the enormous pitchers of nepenthes lowii, and as the shrews licked fatty food oozing from the lid of the pitcher they plopped their droppings inside. It was later found that rats, bats and a bird also made use of the plant toilets.
Nepenthes lowii: the carnivorous plant that evolved into a toilet
Some species that grow where insects are scarce encourage animals to poo in their pitchers
