Biodiversity > What's This? Feeding

The brilliant, red bloom of the Rafflesia plant is the largest flower in the world, growing up to three feet across.

And yet this rare rainforest plant doesn’t have any leaves, stems, or roots. That’s because it’s a parasite: it feeds off its host, a type of grape vine. It attaches itself to the vine and draws all the nutrients and water it needs to survive. It also smells like rotting flesh, which is why it’s also called the “corpse flower.”

Food can be hard to find in the deep sea , where there’s too little sunlight for plants to grow. Some hungry predators lurk and wait — then swallow their prey whole.

The black swallower can gulp down prey 10 times its own weight, bones and all. The swallower’s rows of large, pointed teeth fold back to make room in its mouth and throat. Once inside, the prey is trapped in the swallower’s elastic stomach, where it’s slowly digested.

It’s no surprise that the world’s largest animal has an enormous appetite. The blue whale needs about 8,000 pounds of food a day during its summer feeding season.

But this giant’s diet is made up of the some of the ocean’s tiniest creatures: shrimp-like animals called krill. To feed, the whale gulps down huge amounts of water, then filters out the krill using its fine, comb-like baleen plates. It takes about 40 million krill a day to satisfy the blue whale’s appetite!

Your tongue is an amazing feature. You depend on this bundle of muscles to take in, taste, and swallow food.

Some animals, like the giant anteater, use their tongues to hunt. Anteaters raid anthills and termite mounds with their nozzle-shaped snouts. Their long, sticky tongues extend nearly two feet (61 centimeters) beyond the tip of the snout to pick up insects. With such a long snout and tongue, the anteater can feed while standing back from a nest and avoid getting bitten or stung.

In order to eat, predators must first strike, bite, or poison their prey. And no other animal strikes faster than the mantis shrimp.

This tropical shellfish punches prey with a pair of limbs it keeps folded under its body. When released, these spring-loaded weapons swing at speeds up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour. The force is strong enough to shatter shells and sometimes even aquarium glass. Some mantis shrimp arms are tipped with spines for lightning-quick stabbing.

The harpy eagle is one of the world’s largest birds of prey. With claws as long as a grizzly bear’s, this eagle hunts sloths, monkeys and other mammals.

It uses its powerful talons to pluck prey from rainforest branches, puncturing the animal’s organs as it flies to the top of a tree. Then, pinning the prey with its feet, it tears away bits of flesh with its beak to eat or feed its young. Its grip is strong enough to catch and carry an animal close to its own body-weight — up to 20 pounds (nine kilograms)!