Venus Flytraps Face Extinction in North Carolina From Illegal Poaching and Development
Precautions are in place to protect Venus flytraps at risk of extinction due to illegal poaching and development.
The Venus Fly Trap growing in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Getty ImagesOver 150 Venus flytraps were collected for moving on Sunday morning in Boiling Spring Lakes. Why? Worries about danger from building projects and illegal stealing. This meat-eating plant grows wild only in southeastern North Carolina.
Taking flytraps without permission breaks the law. People steal flytraps to sell them because the plant is rare and strange-looking, officials say. Signs of poaching appeared when holes showed up in the ground where plants had been yanked out.
"They only exist in the entire world, right here," said volunteer Amber Townsend to WECT. "And between development and poaching, they're gonna become endangered."
Boiling Spring Lakes keeps expanding. This has sparked fears about losing these plants. Construction pressure teams up with poaching to threaten what remains.
"And when he got there, he noticed a hole in the ground. And then saw another one, and another one, and then realized that somebody had been out there digging flytraps," Townsend said.
Townsend fears this pattern could wipe them out. "They're just diminishing the life of the plant. I mean, the more plants that are poached, the less that will be in the wild," she said to WECT.
The illegal harvesting creates extra work for those who guard native species. Volunteers and conservation groups work to shift plants away from areas threatened by construction. Sunday morning's rescue moved specimens to protected spots.
