This video was made in partnership with Bill Gates.
Bloodsuckers may seem like they have it easy, but feeding on blood comes with a lot of challenges.

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
Hematophagy: the practice by some species of feeding on the blood of other animals.
Hemoglobin: a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.
Free radicals: unstable atoms that can damage cells.
Anticoagulant: a substance that inhibits the coagulation of the blood.

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CREDITS
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Kate Yoshida | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Aldo de Vos | Music

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REFERENCES
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Akhoundi M, Sereno D, Marteau A, Bruel C, Izri A. (2020). Who Bites Me? A Tentative Discriminative Key to Diagnose Hematophagous Ectoparasites Biting Using Clinical Manifestations. Diagnostics 10: 308. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Benoit JB, Denlinger DL. (2010) Meeting the challenges of onhost and offhost water balance in bloodfeeding arthropods. Journal of Insect Physiology 56(10):136676. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

GraçaSouza AV, MayaMonteiro C, PaivaSilva GO, Braz GR, Paes MC, Sorgine MH, Oliveira MF, Oliveira PL. (2006). Adaptations against heme toxicity in bloodfeeding arthropods. Insect Biochemistry % Molecular Biology 36(4):32235. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16551...

Gillespie RD, Mbow ML, Titus RG (2000) The immunomodulatory factors of bloodfeeding arthropod saliva. Parasite immunology 22: 319–331. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/a...

Kakumanu R, Hodgson WC, Ravi R, Alagon A, Harris RJ, Brust A, Alewood PF, KempHarper BK, Fry BG. (2019). Vampire Venom: Vasodilatory Mechanisms of Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus) Blood Feeding. Toxins 11(1):26. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Pishchany G, Skaar EP. Taste for blood: hemoglobin as a nutrient source for pathogens. PLoS pathogens. 8(8). https://journals.plos.org/plospathoge...

Toh, SQ, Glanfield, A, Gobert, GN et al. (2010). Heme and bloodfeeding parasites: friends or foes?. Parasites Vectors 3:108. https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcen...