Carnivores: Plants and animals that bite back

Brains On! Science podcast for kids

Lemonada Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.5 • 14.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most plants get the energy and nutrients they need from water, sunlight, air and soil. But carnivorous plants get key nutrients from a different source: bugs. We’ll find out how they do it and talk about the mystery of how venus fly traps snap shut. Plus: Two gardeners – one very experienced and one just starting out – offer their tips for growing venus fly traps. So that’s plants, but what about animals? Carnivores are animals that only eat other animals – so how do they get the vitamins, minerals and fiber that we humans get from eating plants? We take a trip to a salad bar with some animal pals to find out. This episode is sponsored by: Bona premium spray mop (bona.com/brainson), The Kevin Henkes book, ""Sweeping up the Heart,” Panama City Beach, (visitpanamacitybeach.com), Madison Reed hair color (madison-reed.com) - use promo code brainson at checkout for 10% off. You can support the show at brainson.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Brains On Were Were series about being curious.
0:04.2	Brains On is supported on part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
0:16.4	This is Brains On from American Public Media. I'm Molly Bloom and my co-host today is Quinn
0:20.9	from Egan, Minnesota. Hi Quinn. Hi everybody. Quinn, today we're talking carnivores, both plant
0:27.6	and animal, flora, and fauna. A carnivore is something that only eats creatures. What is your
0:34.4	favorite carnivorous animal? The owl, I really love owls. It's my spirit animal and snowy owls
0:43.7	can be very courageous because they build their nest on the ground where they may have to flee polar
0:50.1	bears. What do owls usually eat? Um mice, but great horned owls tend to eat skunks without
0:57.5	getting sprayed. Maybe they'll get sprayed, but they do it some amazing things. How did you get
1:05.2	interested in owls? I just started reading books about them and then I was like, oh my gosh,
1:11.2	I love these. I really want to read more. So you're very curious about owls? Yes, and now I like
1:18.1	learn everything about owls. So you're pretty much an owl expert now? Yes. Very cool.
1:24.8	We are going to start by talking about carnivorous plants and I'm going to take this as an
1:29.3	opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do. In a world where herbivores eat plants
1:38.0	and carnivores eat animals comes a plant that eats animals. It's called a carnivorous plant
1:47.1	and I ask you who could tame such a plant? Her name? Cassidy. My name is Cassidy and I live in
1:56.2	Chino Hills and I'm seven years old and I'm in second grade. Cassidy girls Venus fly traps.
2:03.6	Yes, I do. And what do these fearsome organisms look like? You know plants that have leaves.
2:09.6	Let's just imagine there's a butterfly there that makes a little V and then there's points on the
2:15.7	butterflies um little wings. That would be it. That'd be a Venus fly trap. Okay, so maybe a fearsome
2:24.9	isn't the best word to describe these carnivorous plants but they are super cool and Venus fly traps
2:30.0	are just the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, there's Venus fly traps, there's picture plants, there's
	...

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