6/27/13


The Venus Flytrap (just down the ridgeline.  and not 'in' today) is a carnivorous couloir native to the high alpine tundra on the East Side of the Beartooths. It catches its prey—chiefly telemarkers and snowboarders— with a trapping structure formed by the terminal portion of each of the couloir's leaves, and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner Surfaces. When a 'rider' crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes- but only if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value.

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