Vampire Life is Hard

This video was made in partnership with Bill Gates. Blood-suckers may seem like they have it easy, but feeding on blood comes with a lot of challenges. LEARN MORE ************** 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. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Kate Yoshida | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Aldo de Vos | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC OUR STAFF ************ Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich Henry Reich • Peter Reich • Ever Salazar Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ TikTok | @minuteearth Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Apple Podcasts| REFERENCES ************** 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. Benoit JB, Denlinger DL. (2010) Meeting the challenges of on-host and off-host water balance in blood-feeding arthropods. Journal of Insect Physiology 56(10):1366-76. Graça-Souza AV, Maya-Monteiro C, Paiva-Silva GO, Braz GR, Paes MC, Sorgine MH, Oliveira MF, Oliveira PL. (2006). Adaptations against heme toxicity in blood-feeding arthropods. Insect Biochemistry % Molecular Biology 36(4):322-35. Gillespie RD, Mbow ML, Titus RG (2000) The immunomodulatory factors of bloodfeeding arthropod saliva. Parasite immunology 22: 319–331. Kakumanu R, Hodgson WC, Ravi R, Alagon A, Harris RJ, Brust A, Alewood PF, Kemp-Harper BK, Fry BG. (2019). Vampire Venom: Vasodilatory Mechanisms of Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus) Blood Feeding. Toxins 11(1):26. Pishchany G, Skaar EP. Taste for blood: hemoglobin as a nutrient source for pathogens. PLoS pathogens. 8(8). Toh, SQ, Glanfield, A, Gobert, GN et al. (2010). Heme and blood-feeding parasites: friends or foes?. Parasites Vectors 3:108.