These are the “walking palm trees” of Ecuador. Each year, they could walk as much as 20 meters. Slower than the Ents from Lord of the Rings but, well, real.
“As the soil erodes, the tree grows new, long roots that find new and more solid ground, sometimes up to 20m,” Peter Vrsansky, a palaeobiologist from the Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava, tells the BBC. “Then, slowly, as the roots settle in the new soil and the tree bends patiently toward the new roots, the old roots slowly lift into the air. The whole process for the tree to relocate to a new place with better sunlight and more solid ground can take a couple of years.”
Tragically, the incredible Sumaco Biosphere Reserve where they live is being chopped down.
“This [cutting] is a shame, as Ecuador is one of the world countries with the highest partition of protected areas,” Vransky says, But the trees can’t walk fast enough to escape the chainsaw and the machetes backed by current legislation.”