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Leechfest 2006: "We are Always the Bait"

By loom on February 6, 2006.

leech.jpgI know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, I need more stories about leeches. I want to find out what scientists are learning about how leeches evolved.

And I know that's not all you want.

You want to watch a leech video.

And you want a podcast about leech evolution.

Well, you're in luck.

Here's the story, which I wrote for tomorrow's New York Times. It's a profile of Mark Siddall, hirundologist extraordinaire at the American Museum of Natural History. His motto: We are always the bait.

The story inspired the video team at the Times to film Siddall, who explains why we really shouldn't be scared of leeches. Watch here. (Make sure you use high bandwidth if you can handle it--so you can see those nice leech undulations.)

And here's the podcast. The Science Times has decided to plunge into the world of podcasting, and they thought one of the things they should start off with is the leech. I couldn't agree more.

Welcome to Leechfest 2006.

Update, 2/7/06 7:30 am: apparently the video link I provided is not good. You can get to it from the article here.

Update, 9:45 am: Scratch that. Dylab in comments points here.

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Me either - (Firefox 1.5.0.1/Win XP)

The video link in the Loom item is dead. If I go to the Times article, the video link from there works fine.

By Scott Belyea (not verified) on 07 Feb 2006 #permalink

"The story inspired the video team at the Times to film Siddall, who explains why we really shouldn't be scared of leeches."

Not all of us are. I know a woman who had a pet leech for a while. She was devastated when it died.

Siddall says: "The only other animals that swim in a vertical undulating pattern are whales and seals." Don't many nudibranchs also swim in this way?

"I wonder how/what she fed the leach!"

Why, her own blood, of course. What did you expect?

Apparently human blood makes many leeches sick (Dr Roy Sawyer, author of Leech biology and behaviour vols 1-3, personal communication)!