 In the latter half of 2009, this taxon received a great deal of publicity in the national press of various countries as a sensational new plant that catches and kills rats.Whilst certainly large enough to trap rodents, no rodents of any kind had, at that time, been observed within the pitchers of this species, as indicated in the type description and through subsequent clarification by the author, Alastair Robinson, who suggested that were rodents to be captured by the plant, it was likely to be through misadventure rather than by design, large bugs and flying insects appearing to be the usual prey.In October 2012, however, a dead shrew was found in a pitcher of "Nepenthes attenboroughii" during a return expedition to Mount Victoria by Robinson and a group of naturalists.