Dark Banquet (31 page)

Then there are blood feeders that have a high gross-out quotient but are basically harmless (at least to humans). Leeches fall neatly into this category, as do candirus (except on
extremely
rare occasions).

Finally, there are some vampires that will certainly require our help if they are to avoid extinction over the next few decades. The bird-biting vampire bats
Diaemus
and
Diphylla
immediately come to mind. In my opinion, even if you're not a fan of these creatures, with only five thousand species of mammals, we should not stand by as two of them disappear forever. It should also be stressed that conservation measures shouldn't be limited to vertebrate blood feeders. As researchers like Mark Siddall have recently shown, there are invertebrate species, such as the misclassified leech
Hirudo verbana,
that appear to have squirmed through the cracks in our wildlife protection laws.

In the words of Edward O. Wilson:

We should judge every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity. We should not knowingly allow any species or race to go extinct. And let us go beyond mere salvage to begin the restoration of natural environments, in order to enlarge wild populations and stanch the hemorrhaging of biological wealth. There can be no purpose more enspiriting than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.

The tragedy of extinction is that not only do organisms disappear before we know the answers to our questions, they sometimes disappear before we know the right questions to ask.

NOTES

1: W
ALLERFIELD

In 1933 Greenhall and Raymond Ditmars
Raymond L. Ditmars and Arthur M. Greenhall, “The Vampire Bat—A Presentation of Undescribed Habits and Review of Its History,”
Zoologica
4 (1935): 53–76.

Heavily loaded down after a blood meal
J. Scott Altenbach,
Locomotor Morphology of the Vampire Bat, Desmodus rotundus,
Special Pub. No. 6, American Society of Mammalogists (Lawrence, Kans.: 1979), 19–30.

It had taken me six months
William A. Schutt Jr., John Hermanson, Young-Hui Chang, Dennis Cullinane, J. Scott Altenbach, Farouk Muradali, and John Bertram, “Functional Morphology of the Common Vampire Bat,
Desmodus rotundus,” Journal of Experimental Biology
200, no. 23 (1977): 3003–12.

In 1941 Captain Lloyd Gates
David E. Brown,
Vampiro—The Vampire Bat in Fact and Fantasy
(Silver City, N. Mex.: High-Lonesome Books, 1994), 77.

2: C
HILDREN OF THE
N
IGHT

In 1801, in Paraguay
David E. Brown.
Vampiro—The Vampire Bat in Fact and Fantasy
(Silver City, N. Mex.: High-Lonesome Books, 1994), 15.

The vampire bat is often the cause
Charles R. Darwin,
A Naturalist's Voyage
(London: John Murray, 1886), 22.

This is an adaptation that comes in handy
Uwe Schmidt, “Orientation and Sensory Functions in
Desmodus rotundus,”
in
Natural History of Vampire Bats,
ed. A. M. Greenhall and U. Schmidt, 150–52 (Boca Raton, Fl.: CRC Press, 1988).

A recent study suggests that
Desmodus
Udo Gröger and Lutz Wiegrebe, “Classification of Human Breathing Sounds by the Common Vampire Bat,
Desmodus rotundus, BMC Biology,
4, no. 18 (2006): 1–8.

For example, Muslim gypsies in the Balkans
Matthew Bunson,
The Vampire Encyclopedia
(New York: Gramercy, 1993), 218, 278.

In Victorian England
Jerry Hopkins,
Extreme Cuisine
(North Clarendon, Vt.: Tuttle Publishing, 2004), 269.

A boy by the name of Ernest Wicks
Montague Summers,
The Vampire: His Kith and Kin
(London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner and Co., 1928), 46.

Vlad's favorite torture method
Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally,
Dracula—A Biography of Vlad the Impaler
(New York: Hawthorne Books, 1973), 76–77.

How did a murderous Romanian prince
Ibid., 8–9.

Another hypothesis on the origin
M. Brock Fenton, “Wounds and the Origin of Blood-Feeding in Bats,
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
47 (1992): 161–71.

As Stephen J. Gould explained
Stephen Jay Gould,
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1989).

As an alternative to previous speculation
William A. Schutt Jr., “The Chiropteran Hindlimb Morphology and the Origin of Blood Feeding in Bats, in
Bat Biology and Conservation,
ed. T. H. Kunz and P. Racey, 157–68. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1998).

3: S
NAPPLE,
A
NYONE?

Had he dissected a specimen
Thomas H. Huxley, “On the Structure of the Stomach in Desmodus Rufus,”
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London
35 (1865), 386–90.

In an experiment using barium-laced cow blood
G. Clay Mitchell and James R. Tigner, “The Route of Ingested Blood in the Vampire Bat,”
Journal of Mammalogy
51, no. 4 (1970): 814–17.

According to a 1962 paper
William A. Wimsatt and Anthony Geurriere, “Observations on the Feeding Capacities and Excretory Functions of Captive Vampire Bats,”
Journal of Mammalogy
43 (1962): 17–26.

George Goodwin and Art Greenhall took
George Goodwin and Arthur M. Greenhall, “A Review of the Bats of Trinidad and Tobago,”
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
122 (1961): 187–301.

In 1969, Cornell vampire bat expert
William N. McFarland and William A. Wimsatt, “Renal Function and Its Relationship to the Ecology of the Vampire Bat,
Desmodus rotundus,” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology
28 (1970): 985–1006.

Isolated from a clover mold
Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein,
Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 95.

After capturing the bats in mist nets
Rexford Lord, “Control of Vampire Bats,” in
Natural History of Vampire Bats,
ed. A. M. Greenhall and U. Schmidt, 217–20. (Boca Raton, Fl.: CRC Press, 1988).

A related, but less-cost-efficient, method
Ibid., 219.

Although we didn't realize it
Bill Hayes,
Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood
(New York: Random House, 2005), 172–73.

Some researchers use an alternative method
Janet M. Dickson and D. G. Green, “The Vampire Bat
(Desmodus rotundus):
Improved Methods of Laboratory Care and Handling,”
Laboratory Animals
4 (1970): 40.

During the three years that we maintained
William A. Schutt Jr., Farouk Muradali, Mondol, Keith Joseph, and Kim Brockmann, “The Behavior and Maintenance of Captive White-Winged Vampire Bats,”
Diaemus youngi
(Phyllostomidae: Desmodontinae).
Journal of Mammalogy
80, no. 1 (1999): 71–81.

Another way that
Diaemus
differs
Arthur M. Greenhall, “Feeding Behavior,” in
Natural History of Vampire Bats,
123–35.

In 1984, zoologist Gerry Wilkinson
Gerald S. Wilkinson, “Reciprocal Food Sharing in the Vampire Bat,”
Nature
308 (1984): 181.

So named for the frill
Karl Koopman, “Systematics and Distribution,” in
Natural History of Vampire Bats,
7–17.

If you examine the hind limb bones
William A. Schutt Jr., “Chiropteran Hindlimb Morphology and the Origin of Blood Feeding in Bats,” in
Bat Biology and Conservation,
ed. T. H. Kunz and P. Racey, 157–68. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1998).

Researchers in the 1970s
Dona Howell and J. Pylka, “Why Bats Hang Upside-Down: A Biomechanical Hypothesis,”
Journal of Theoretical Biology
69 (1977): 625–31.

Many bats have a structure called a calcar
William A. Schutt Jr. and Nancy B. Simmons, “Morphology and Homology of the Chiropteran Calcar,”
Journal of Mammalian Evolution
5, no. 1 (1998): 1–32.

Basically, what I'd proposed was similar
William A. Schutt Jr. and J. Scott Altenbach, “A Sixth Digit in
Diphylla ecaudata,
the Hairy-Legged Vampire Bat,”
Mammalia
61, no. 2 (1997): 280–85.

Rather than feeding from below the branch
J. Moojen, “Sanguivorismo de
Diphylla ecaudata
Spix em
Gallus domesticus
(L.),”
O Campo
10 (1939): 70.

4: E
IGHTY
O
UNCES

“It has been my unvaried rule”
“The Death of George Washington, 1799,” Eye Witness to History, 2001,
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com
.

Soon after, the incision was made
George Washington: Eyewitness Account of His Death,” 2003,
http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/z_x01death_lear_g.htm
.

In desperation, Dr. Dick
Oscar Reiss,
Medicine and the American Revolution
(Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., 1998), 234–35.

Other suggestions included rubbing
Ibid., 235.

For example, some ancient Egyptians
Henry E. Sigerist,
A History of Medicine,
vol. 1:
Primitive and Archaic Medicine
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1951), 247.

The word
blood
shows up
Douglas Starr,
Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce
(New York: Knopf, 1998), xiv.

Since the ancient Hebrews believed
Kenneth Walker,
The Story of Blood
(New York: Philosophical Library, 1962), 20–22.

Galen and his contemporaries used a metal scalpel
Bill Hayes,
Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood
(New York: Random House, 2005): 172–73.

In 1462 a bloodletting calendar
Starr,
Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce,
19.

Even drowning victims were bled
Wendy Moore,
The Knife Man
(New York: Broadway Books, 2005), 187–88.

5: T
HE
R
ED
S
TUFF

Hemoglobin is so effective at carrying O
₂
Kenneth Walker,
The Story of Blood
(New York: Philosophical Library, 1962), 39.

There are so many erythrocytes
Ibid., 37.

A year later, encouraged by Lower's results
Bill Hayes,
Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood
(New York: Random House, 2005), 52.

Then he received about six ounces
Douglas Starr,
Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce
(New York: Knopf, 1998), 3–16.

Aneurysms can occur for any
Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein,
Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 78–79.

Bloodletting was also used
Ibid., 80.

In his book
Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce
Ibid., 15–16.

Porphyria (from the Greek word for “purple”)
Matthew Bunson,
The Vampire Encyclopedia
(New York: Gramercy, 1993), 210.

In the 1960s two authors
I. Macalpine and R. Hunter, “The Insanity of George III: A Classic Case of Porphyria,”
British Medical Journal
1 (1966): 65–67.

The examination of several strands
BBC News,
King George III: Mad or Misunderstood,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/hi/health/388903.stm
, 2004.

Recently, researchers have found evidence
Andrew Bowser, “DG Dispatch—DDW: Blood-letting Improves Hepatitis C Patient Response to Interferon,” May 19, 1999,
http://pslgroup.com/dg/fead6.htm
.

Studies have shown that insulin resistance
J. M. Fernandez-Real, G. Penarroja, A. Castro, F. Garcia-Bragado, I. Hernandez-Aguado, and W. Ricart, “Blood Letting in High-Ferritin Type 2 Diabetes: Effects on Insulin Sensitivity and Beta-Cell Function,”
Diabetes
51, no. 4 (2002): 1000–4.

6: A B
EAUTIFUL
F
RIENDSHIP

One Trinidadian genus has
Roy T. Sawyer,
Leech Biology and Behavior,
vol. 1:
Anatomy, Physiology, and Behaviour
(Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1986), 368.

Leeches are commonly fed upon
James H. Thorp and Alan P. Covich, eds.,
Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates
(New York: Academic Press, 1991), 428.

Among these are several members
Roy T. Sawyer,
Leech Biology and Behavior,
vol. 2:
Feeding Biology, Ecology, and Systematics
(Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1986), 430–32.

Although the hard outer covering
Thorp and Covich,
Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates,
451–52.

Additionally, leeches were the preferred method
Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein,
Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 90.

Medicinal leech use reached its zenith
Ibid.

Fashion-conscious ladies
“Hirudo medicinalis,
Leech History,
http://www.leeches-medicinalis.com/history.htm
, 2006.

The Leech-gatherers take them
J. G. Wood,
Animate Creation: A Popular Edition of Our Living World: a Natural History,
vol. 3 (New York: Selmar Hess, 1885), 598.

Like many freshwater leeches
Sawyer,
Leech Biology and Behavior,
vol. 2:
Feeding Biology, Ecology, and Systematics,
626–27.

This behavior is similar to that reported
M. R. Heupel, C. A. Simpfendorfer, and R. E. Hueter, “Running Before the Storm: Blacktip Sharks Respond to Falling Barometric Pressure Associated with Tropical Storm Gabrielle,”
Journal of Fish Biology
63, no. 5 (2003): 1357–63.

Leeches were also commonly used to treat strokes
A. Mark Clarfield, “Stalin's Death (or ‘Death of a Tyrant'),”
Annals of Long-Term Care
13, no. 3 (March 2005): 52–54.

Summoned, some contend, up to thirteen hours
Edvard Radzinsky,
Stalin
(New York: Doubleday, 1996), 574.

Stalin had recently initiated
Ibid., 552–65.

Presumably, this became a popular measure
A. Park, “The Case of the Disappearing Leech,”
British Journal of Plastic Surgery
46 (1993): 543.

Leeches that specialize in larger hosts
Sawyer,
Leech Biology and Behavior,
vol. 2:
Feeding Biology, Ecology, and Systematics,
454.

Sucker attachment actually has two components
Sawyer,
Leech Biology and Behavior,
vol. 1:
Feeding Biology, Ecology, and Systematics
, 358.

Similarly, other species of
H. E. Müller, M. Pinus, and Uwe Schmidt,
“Aeromonas hydrophila
as a Normal Intestinal Bacterium of the Vampire Bat,
Desmodus rotundus,” Zentralblatt Für Veterinärmedzin Reihe B.
27, no. 5 (1980), 419–24.