num_pages: 325
description: For centuries blood feeders have inhabited our nightmares and horror stories as well as the shadowy realms of scientific knowledge. In Dark Banquet zoologist Bill Schutt takes readers on an entertaining voyage into the world of some of natures strangest creaturesthe sanguivores. Using a sharp eye and mordant wit Schutt makes a remarkably persuasive case that vampire bats leeches ticks bed bugs and other vampires are as deserving of our curiosity as warmer and fuzzier species areand that many of them are even worthy of conservation.Schutt takes us from rural Trinidad to the jungles of Brazil to learn about some of the most reviled misunderstood and marvelously evolved animals on our planet: vampire bats. Only recently has fact begun to disentangle itself from fiction concerning these remarkable animals and Schutt delves into the myths and misconceptions surrounding them. Examining the substance that sustains natures vampires Schutt reveals just how little we actually knew about blood until well into the twentieth century. We revisit George Washington on his deathbed to learn how ideas about blood and the supposedly therapeutic value of bloodletting first devised by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks survived into relatively modern times. Schutt also tracks the history of medicinal leech use. Once employed by the tens of millions to drain perceived excesses of blood today the market for these ancient creatures is booming once againbut for very different reasons.Among the other blood feeders we meet in these pages are bed bugs or ninja insects which are making a creepy resurgence in posh hotels and well-kept homes near you. In addition Dark Banquet details our dangerous and sometimes deadly encounters with ticks chiggers and mites (the latter implicated in Colony Collapse Disordercurrently devastating honey bees worldwide). Then there are the truly weirdvampire finches. And if you thought piranha were scary some people believe that the candiru (or willy fish) is the best reason to avoid swimming in the Amazon.Enlightening alarming and appealing to our delight in the bizarre Dark Banquet peers into a part of the natural world to which we are through our blood inextricably linked.From the Hardcover edition.
language: English
title: Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures
publisher: Harmony