It is often photographed in the wild, with bears dragging streamer-like things around, ranging from 1-2 meters short to 10 meters long. There is "obsessive-compulsive disorder" eager to drill into the video to pull out the streamer, and there is a picture in the mind that has simulated the bear shouting "comfortable" in advance. However, when some people know what that "streamer" is, "obsessive-compulsive disorder" is instantly better.
In an article by Matthew Miller of The Nature Conservancy, he cites a wealth of video evidence revealing that the "streamers" are actually tapeworms (tāo chóng) that are excreted from the bear's body at its convenience. Tapeworms appear not only in bears, but also in humans, and adults can grow up to about 22 meters.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > tapeworms in the human body</h1>
One morning in 2019, a freelance photographer in Udon Thani, northeast Thailand, had just sent his child to school and had the urge to go to the toilet. When he had finished the battle and had just walked out of the toilet door, the horn sounded again, and in the second battle he felt something coming out, and then he stood up and turned his head to find something sticking out.
He realized it was bad, because last week he had just cut off his appendix, could it be the rope left behind at that time? So he began to pull the rope, and the more he pulled, the more he realized that something was wrong. He felt that the rope was too long, he pulled at least 5 meters or more, and the feel was not right, but it was soft, slippery, elastic, the color was not right, more like "goose intestines", did he pull his intestines out?
He made a small video and sent it to his girlfriend, who was a nurse, but there was no immediate reply. After putting down the phone, he thought for a while, and finally he completely pulled out the "goose intestine" and spread it on the ground and pressed the brick to estimate about 9.7 meters. Then the phone rang and it said: This is a tapeworm.
He was shocked and decided to reconfirm the completely extracted whole video, and the result was that "it was actually moving" in the picture recorded by the mobile phone. In fact, he found out early on, but at that time, he did not think about the living thing, thinking that it was a telescopic reaction caused by elasticity, and obviously he did not need to confirm it anymore.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > bears and tapeworms</h1>
Alaskan grizzly bears are less comfortable than humans. This is the footage captured by the tracking camera, and an adult large black bear has also encountered the trouble that tapeworms are about to get out of, and the parts of the tapeworm that exist outside the body are visually measuring about 3-6 meters long.
If you look closely, you will find that there are two of them, that is to say, it may be a tapeworm, the head and tail are on the outside, the rest is inside, and there is a possibility that both tapeworms are out of part. The black bear was very uncomfortable, and after walking for a while, the tapeworm did not completely break away, so it solved the tapeworm by rubbing the tree, but it did not succeed, and could only continue to wander, hoping that which branch would assist it in pulling out.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="11" How do > tapeworms get into the body? </h1>
Tapeworms are intestinal parasites that can parasitize a large number of animals depending on the stage of growth. The body of the tapeworm is divided into segments, each of which has the ability to produce "two germ cells needed for reproduction" and combine to form eggs.
Even if tapeworms are swallowed by the host, these eggs can quickly form a new tapeworm in the host's body. Tapeworms do not have heads, and the seemingly "head" structures at both ends are only used to grasp the host's intestines, and feeding is directly absorbed through the epidermis everywhere.
Alaska's rivers have large numbers of migratory salmon (salmon), but these rivers are also home to tapeworm eggs. Salmon need to swim against the current, and encounter "steps" also need to jump the dragon gate. Because salmon come from the sea, the meat is delicious, and the speed of the boat against the current is slow, the moment it jumps out of the water is simply to "deliver food". Alaskan grizzly bears are known for preying on salmon, and during the migratory season, they are always in the river waiting for the salmon to jump into their mouths.
The chain goes like this, crustaceans eat tapeworm eggs, salmon eat crustaceans, and bears eat salmon. So the tapeworms crawled all the way down the food chain to the stomachs of top predators, camped, and used the nutrients in the bear's body to grow and produce a large number of eggs. The eggs return to the river as the bear discharges, beginning a new life cycle.
With the advent of toilets and tap water, the number of tapeworms present in the human body has been greatly reduced. However, it is also possible to use food, pets, etc. by other means. In fact, as long as tapeworms stay in the intestines and do not migrate to other places, the impact is not large. Humans can't make them disappear completely, and tapeworms are just one of the parasites. 40% of the creatures currently known on Earth are parasites, and although we don't like them, parasites are part of Earth's biodiversity. If you look at it from the perspective of the earth, human beings are not parasites of the earth.