Like the Ents and Choornam from the works of Tolkien, “the walking palm”, Socratea family, native to the tropical forests of Ecuador, are able to slowly plod along the ground, overcoming distances of 20 meters per year. It is difficult to imagine that this is possible, but such trees do exist. They go, of course, very slowly, so that the day each tree is capable of moving only 2-3 inches. But this once again proves to us that nature is able to create the most incredible phenomena.
To see these amazing trees, you have the whole day to get from the capital of Ecuador to the reserve Sumako made by the Council under the UNESCO list of biosphere reserves. Three hours by car, then from 7 to 15 hours on the boat, by mule, then on foot. But all these efforts are worth it, because after a tiring journey you will find yourself among pristine forests, where hardly can be found the hut of a Forester or separated from the guide tourists.
“When the soil under the tree is exhausted, it begins to push out long roots that are trying to find new, more fertile soil, says paleobiology Peter Vrsansky of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, is finding a suitable place, new roots digging into the ground, and the tree slowly leans in their direction, gradually pulling out their old roots out of the ground. The whole process of moving to a new, more Sunny and fertile place can take up to several years.”
Peter and his team held in the reserve Sumako few months, carefully studying and documenting this wonder of nature. In parallel with the study of walking trees, the researchers were able to discover in the forests of Ecuador are some 30-foot waterfalls not marked on the map, and open two new species of vertebrates (lizard and frog). And they had to deal with a pack of angry monkeys, who do not like the intrusion of strangers into their territory. They rushed in a team of researchers long heavy branches and even their faeces, in an attempt to banish those from his home.
At the moment the situation on this reserve is very sad because the local authorities have put up some portion of it for sale in connection with the agrarian reform in the country. Local residents have the right to acquire part of the forest, and then do with it what they please. To date, more than 200 hectares of the reserve has already been cut down, and walking trees are not so quick to be saved from chainsaws and axes. Peter Vrsansky looking for a way to protect the biosphere reserve, offering the largest universities in the world to buy the land, thereby protecting it from destruction of unique plants and animals. So far, however, luck he never smiled.