How Leeches Are Helping to Save Endangered Species
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- Опубліковано 19 вер 2024
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Leeches are bloodsucking parasites, and you wouldn't think they're great at protecting other species. Yet for some conservationists, these little vampires are one of the best tools available for conserving endangered and threatened species.
Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)
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Back in the 70s (I'm old, be kind) I wrote a term paper for a Biology Class called "Our Friend, The Leech" which then turned into an even more unhinged Toastmaster speech. Thank you for backing up my assertions from decades ago. Our friend, indeed, is The Leech!
Now I want to hear your speech!
HA! old 🫵😂
Sorry I couldn't help myself
No one cares
@@MaekarManastormno one cares about you maybe, but obviously people cared enough to like this persons comment.
😂😉Did you have an accompanying film strip?
Got my start in Toastmasters, too.👍
- If you have blood, they will happily find you.
I see that we are starting the day with joyful existential dread.
"tummies full of data"... this is why I love the writers for Sci Show
I love how quickly eDNA has gone from hare-brained idea to practical utility.
yes! it still blows my mind that this can be done.
I hate it when leeches lobby for my sympathy. It's extortion
Position: Research assistant
Location: Outdoors
Experience Needed: None
Key Attributes: Must be hemogenic
Must have blood n stuff.
These leeches left scientists speechless.
Love the shirt! Photosynthesis is dope!
Great use of leeches other than reattaching fingers and whatnot.
Grats on 8mil Subscribers!
2:55 Can leeches feed off from dead animals? Could the bat have died and fallen to the ground?
I believe they don't prefer dead animals kinda like mosquitoes. Blood tends to go bad pretty quick
The study of how far can a leach travel after eating is absolutely an IgNobel waiting to happen
Leeches are so cool, I've been thinking about getting one as a pet. Super excited about this video!
I found a leach in my quarantine tank for a pair of new Oscar fish and it is definitely showing why it’s important to quarantine animals before adding them to something that in this case is a 325 gallon pond that has sail fin plecos in it and they could definitely get harmed by them
At first glance, this thumbnail does NOT look like a leech. I def saw a certain male appendage at first 😂
BBC baby! I thought was on the wrong site for a sec.
Suggestion. Ad placards should probably be up high. Even though I can hear, I have closed captioning on and the placard overlays the CC.
Why would them attaching to humans directly on the skin be a contamination issue? If they're able to determine species by DNA in the blood, couldn't they just say "Oh, there's human DNA here, either a human is in the jungle or it's from the person we picked it off of"? As I was typing this, I thought maybe there would be contamination from things (animals) the human has touched, but the same would still be true of their clothes, right?
*(Twilight Zone noises)*
Yea! Hank is back.
The one time I had a leech on me, I was 9 and I screamed. Haven't been back in a pond since.
How did a leech get into a bat? Flying leeches? I'm scared.
Nah, probably because the bat took a bath in the water where the leech lived. A lot of leeches have chemicals in their salive that make it impossible to feel a bite, so the bat probably just didn't notice.
@@sophiejones3554 Oh, that makes sense. Bats need to drink water too, yeah. My comment was half joking anyway (I know leeches don't fly) but this makes sense.
Forest leeches live in trees and underbrush and drop/"jump" on things passing nearby. Like ticks, only squishier.
Mmm, tummy data!
I want your shirt, hank! Photosynthesis IS dope! Lololol
I love sci show! And yet sometimes you do videos about emerging tech and i kind of dismiss it because the results are inconclusive or the studies are in the early stages. This video is not like that, this is amazing and it clearly demonstrated not just that this can be done but that it can be done in the real world and lead to real results. I was truly amazed and enthralled, this is how i most enjoy science news!
Ah yes, the science every child dreams of doing: walking around so leeches stick to you 😂
I had zero clue leeches live on land
I knew there were land leeches in madagascar, but no clue they were on any mainland, let alone several.
I learned that pretty recently myself. Turns out they live anywhere things with blood live. I don't think any fly, but plenty live in trees and drop on animals passing underneath.
@@laser8389 I’d freak out if one fell from the sky and landed on me
@@laser8389 i used to dream about exploring jungle...
which forests is it where you wandering about gets you attacked by leeches?
Surprisingly many, but I think Hank said the study he was talking about was in Vietnam.
when my son was young [about 9 I think] he caught a leech in a jar in the local paddling ford.
He sat for ages, trying to get it to attach, but it was a fish leech, so he was disappointed.
Environmental DNA seems to be found everywhere someone is looking for it. Like a month ago i heard an interview with a researcher from Copenhagen University talking about collecting environmental DNA from the air. If i remember correctly they found dna from the local zoo while testing their "DNA vacuum".
Not even a minute in and this already reminds me of that new method they now use in lakes or bodies of water to see what species exist in that ecosystem. Now this might be a good way to do this on land.. interesting
I think we should be careful looking at data like this. As is often said, correlation is not causation. For instance, researchers noticed fewer wild animal DNA in leeches near reserve borders and more livestock DNA. With that, they assumed wild animals must be denser farther from these borders. Although this very well may be the case, this is far from the only reason this could be. We know that parasites have a tendency to specialization, specifically to their host species. Just introducing a large population of any one animal, like thousands of sheep, will trend parasites to that more common species. Population numbers of wild species would not need to change. Perhaps, wild animals are better at avoiding leeches or just better at detecting them once on their bodies. Maybe the best grazing land is also the leech species preferred environment. There are so many other reasons beyond wild population declines that could bring these results, many being just as if not more plausible. To be additionally clear, I'm not saying their conclusion is incorrect. It may be correct, but the evidence provided so far doesn't actually say that. It just says in areas with more domestic animals, leeches eat more domestic blood. Anything beyond that, without looking into host preferences in the local populations, is just speculative of a correlation.
Absolutely, correlation is only the first step, but if they have a diverse sample in terms of types of leeches and locations gathered within an area, you can get a pretty whole picture. Also, I'm pretty sure leeches are pretty non-picky, at least as a whole, so while species A may have a slight preference for sheep over deer, species B-ZZ37 would probably balance it out.
So.... lets talk about what the thumbnail looks like
NO FOR REAL LIKE WTF
Hi Hank!
When I was a child and didn't know what leeches were I was swimming in a lake and I got one on my leg. I was really excited to have a friend and I was so upset when my parents said we had to remove it.
Scientists: "Bat DNA? Wasn't expecting that!"
Leech (to its friends): "So I was feeding on this furry thing when, I kid you not, it just took off! There I was, just dangling along, getting my fill, and this thing's going all over the sky! Leech, I nearly fell off it. It finally landed and I was like, nope, not again, never biting one of these, no matter how hungry I am."
i love leeches i’m gonna get some soon to keep as pets :3
If there is any way to find Sasquatch...
Do leeches of different species feed on other leeches? I was picturing in my head a leech centipede but that's too wild.
Seems like thats a yes, he mentions it at 5:20
Yep, but not how you would first think. He noted "Predatory" leeches, which have a far more conventional "hunt, kill, eat" relationship with other leeches.
Your new hair is so cute! I'm so glad you are still with us to explain all this science!
Remember when this guy had straight hair? (If I'd a consistent job, SciShow is the one I'd subscribe to. )
leeches are awesome!
I think leeches are cool, I’d love to keep a few of them as pets.
How would you keep them fed, tgen?
Do they have to kill them to derive the dna from the leech…?
anyone see the Humphrey Bogart movie 'The African Queen'?
And here i thought leaches were aquatic swamp creatures
Woop
LOVE FROM PUNE INDIA🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 ❤🥰🙂😘😀☺😊😍🥰❤🥰❤❤
goated leeches
FULL OF SOUP?! 🙀 ⭕👈
This could prove the Thylacine are alive.
🤚
Comments before me, commented first and then watched the video
I have that toy
Didn't know my Ex - Girlfriend is helping endangered species... 😂
How accurate is E-DNA at distinguishing between different animals? If two animals are 'close' relatives of each other, could that influence the accuracy of the results?
They said at the start they look for specific snippets that are unique
Kinda more study cosmology, though biology is entertaining also.
so if rare habitats are built up near these leeches. endangered animals would benefit. or release a mate of a species
That doesn't look like a leach in the thumbnail.
so what I'm hearing is... jurassic park...
i am sorry guys but the mid-video ads just kill the pacing and derail me every time
Why not go after rich people? Knowing them, we will find DNA from species we didn't know just died out and hopefully resurrect said species.
We have to work with nature to protect nature
how does eDNA relate to eSIM
It doesn't at all, and your question belies a fundamental misunderstanding of what these terms are describing
@@gastonmarian7261 wow, you must be very popular at parties
Your model of memory doesn't explain Old memories not used much more clear then more often recalled memories.
You may think that concepts we can't explain are makes you human and Sympathetic animals aren't being nice.
But direct emotional linking between different beings is simpler then think about deals but couldn't hurt . But direct linking could be used concepts we can't explain like goodness over nice's one being manipulating the feelings of another to serve the other fir nothing in return at expense of other. .. you look what other species do as illogical appeal to nature . And when find animals that go against their points .they say humans aren't this species. Even if species you aren't are closer related. Like Using mantises and spiders as closer example then Orcas Meerkats.
ways you looking at nature could go . Claiming we can't change nature even though change is nature. Many concepts aren't in species or genetic Line . But nitches and nice's is something we see in other species for symbiotic relationships. And in nature what term goodness giving of yourself and get nothing in return at the expense of other being . What's that nitch all you humans think your to sufisticated to have hormones and feelings manipulated like ba crab with that fungus. Or Education What considered maturity dutty deserving in boys is just stuff you can't logically explain is more sophisticated ways manipulating . Fact you can't logically explain it is case in point
Did you like, delete a quarter of the important information in your own comment? I can understand like the gist of what you're saying but it reads like gibberish or like you're having a stroke 😅
Huh I guess theres no comments yet
Not a single one...
viewer 129, quickest I've ever been to an upload and I've been watching since the beginning
It’s good to have dreams
1st to comment.
More like first to cry for the attention mommy didn't give you because she doesn't love you but definitely not the first to spam a brainless response to the video
@@michaelmayhem350 wtf they just said first
@@michaelmayhem350 why
@@GoatFan11-u1q yeah.... Rushing to write first on a video is just a desperate plea for attention. It doesn't provide feedback to the creator nor does it contribute to any conversation or discussion around the video. It's borderline spam to just keep writing first on videos...
@@michaelmayhem350 idc its probably a child
I'm early yay
But also brain dead.
3:36 no