Getting Personal: How I Became Bait for Bloodsucking Leeches

For most zoologists, fieldwork involves lying low and watching quietly as animals wander by. That is not Mark Siddall’s approach. Instead, he rolls up his pant legs, wades into murky waters, and calmly becomes a host for bloodsucking leeches. Siddall, a curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, is one of the world’s foremost leech experts. His particular interest is learning how the parasites developed the ability to keep the blood of their victims flowing; his research could lead to new anti-clotting drugs for humans. In his own words, he describes a recent successful leech encounter.