{"id":234533,"date":"2024-06-20T16:09:21","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T16:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/watch-leeches-jump-by-coiling-their-bodies-like-cobras\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:16:35","slug":"watch-leeches-jump-by-coiling-their-bodies-like-cobras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/watch-leeches-jump-by-coiling-their-bodies-like-cobras\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch leeches jump by coiling their bodies like cobras"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>\n    <iframe title=\"Watch leeches jump by coiling their bodies like cobras\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z996gaqpLCM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n    <\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, scientists have captured video of leeches leaping from leaves, settling a centuries-long dispute over the bloodsuckers\u2019 ability to jump.<\/p>\n<p>The question of whether leeches can jump has been debated since rumours of the behaviour emerged in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biolib.de\/haeckel\/ceylon_e\/chapter_06.html\">late 1800s.<\/a> There have been occasional sightings since, but this is the first conclusive evidence.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.maifahmy.com\/\">Mai Fahmy<\/a> at Fordham University in New York documented this ability in 2017 while doing fieldwork in Madagascar. During a hike, she encountered a Chtonobdella leech (<em>Chtonobdella fallax<\/em>) \u2013 an earthworm-sized animal that lives solely in Madagascar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI squatted next to it on the ground, and I took out my phone and started recording,\u201d says Fahmy. \u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t realise what I had captured.\u201d When she showed the video to her colleagues back in New York, Fahmy says they all had the same reaction: did that leech just jump?<\/p>\n<p>Six years later, Fahmy returned to Madagascar to try to record another jumping leech and once again found quick success. This time, two leeches were interacting before one leapt from a leaf.<\/p>\n<p>The leeches prepare by anchoring their rear sucker to a surface \u2013 in this case, a leaf \u2013 and coiling the rest of their body backwards. Then, in one rapid motion, they launch their body forward, much like a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2148751-invasive-snake-is-really-a-new-species-and-should-be-protected\/\">striking cobra<\/a>, unsticking their rear sucker and becoming airborne.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"js-content-prompt-opportunity\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The sudden burst of movement may be a tactic to land on or near unsuspecting prey. The leap is a bit awkward, but \u201cthis is very clearly an active form of propulsion\u201d, says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michaeltessler.net\/current-research\">Michael Tessler<\/a> at Medgar Evers College in New York.<\/p>\n<p>Land-living leeches have not been closely studied, despite their ability to help conservationists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/dn21737-leeches-help-track-down-endangered-species\/\">track down hard-to-spot animals<\/a> by analysing the blood from these creatures that the leeches have sipped. But finding this ability in two different individuals and locations \u201csuggests that this behaviour is more common than we might have anticipated\u201d, says Tessler. Based on this evidence and anecdotal stories from other regions, he suspects these are not the world\u2019s only jumping leeches.<\/p>\n<section class=\"ArticleTopics\">\n<p class=\"ArticleTopics__Heading\">Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2436064-watch-leeches-jump-by-coiling-their-bodies-like-cobras\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] For the first time, scientists have captured video of leeches leaping from leaves, settling a centuries-long dispute over the bloodsuckers\u2019 ability to jump. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}