Parasites-Daniel Kahn/the Painted Bird

[00:04.350]Nature has a way of really touching you inside [00:08.460]It's a lesson everyone must learn [00:12.440]Ain't no use to try to run away or try to hide [00:17.570]Everyone must finally take a turn [00:21.570]You may be a person who believes it is your right [00:25.460]To be free & independent to the core [00:29.771]But once you learn the ways of these exotic parasites, [00:34.500]You'll see that independence is a bore... [00:41.770]Toxoplasma Gondii is a microscopic bug [00:46.410]Who carries all its genius in its genes [00:50.760]It may be on your fingers [00:52.590]Or the fibers of your rug [00:54.890]But to this bug there's more than it may seem [00:58.870]When Toxoplasma gets into the system of a mouse [01:02.920]It doesn't make him feel that he's unwell [01:06.920]It gives the mouse the energy [01:08.910]To run around the house [01:10.840]& not detect the prowling feline's smell [01:14.710]In fact it makes the mouse [01:16.170]Become attracted to the cat [01:18.451]He doesn't show a single sign of fright [01:22.241]For Toxoplasma seems to know [01:24.031]Precisely where it's at [01:25.901]It is a very cunning parasite [01:29.710]The cat then turns the mouse into a ghost [01:33.520]& Toxoplasma joins its natural host—the cat [01:41.110]NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE [01:44.839]AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE? [01:48.963]YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE [01:53.206]WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE [02:14.560]The Lancet liver fluke [02:17.089]Lives in the liver of a cow [02:19.707]& lays its eggs inside the cow's manure [02:23.552]& there it starts an odyssey [02:25.722]Which somehow will allow [02:27.346]This tiny worm to work its way back to her [02:31.465]The fluke-infested feces [02:33.073]Is then eaten by a snail [02:35.096]Who turns the larval worm into a cyst [02:38.792]Excreted by the mollusk [02:40.449]In a slimy yellow trail [02:42.406]But the snail is only first [02:44.105]On this fluke's list [02:46.418]The adolescent fluke worm [02:48.138]Is then eaten by an ant [02:49.955]& it lives awhile as an independent worm [02:53.864]But then it does a special thing [02:55.613]That other insects can't [02:57.305]It infiltrates a group of the ant's nerves [03:01.081]The ant then spends its daily life [03:02.932]As normal as before [03:04.728]Working in the colony all day [03:08.244]But every night the parasite [03:10.033]Residing at his core [03:11.843]Manipulates him in the strangest ways [03:15.654]By the moon the ant will climb [03:17.311]The tallest blade of grass [03:18.928]& sink his mandibles into the tip [03:22.471]& there he will be paralyzed [03:24.309]Until the night has passed [03:25.915]When back into the colony he slips [03:29.550]& this will happen every single night [03:33.143]Until a chewing cow will come to bite... [03:40.552]NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE [03:44.748]AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE? [03:48.890]YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE [03:52.838]WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE [04:15.022]The Ampulex Compressa ot Emerald Cockroach Wasp [04:19.323]Is famous for her reproductive ways [04:23.266]For when she has a common household cockroach in her grasp [04:27.011]She sinks her atinger twice into her prey [04:30.744]The first attack will paralyze [04:32.695]The roach's frontal legs [04:34.498]The second one goes straight into his brain [04:38.271]For if the wasp's to have a nesting place to lay her egg [04:41.763]The roach mustn't respond to any pain [04:45.573]The venom doesn't kill the roach [04:47.438]But incapacitates [04:49.311]The nerves that tell his body to retreat [04:52.934]& since the wasp has killed [04:54.296]The roach's instinct to escape [04:56.466]She takes a roach antenna as a leash [05:00.029]She leads him to her burrow [05:01.806]She climbs upon the roach [05:04.001]& lays an egg upon his abdomen [05:07.378]The larva chews itts way [05:09.086]Into its docile captive host [05:11.390]& feasts upon the organs there within [05:15.160]The roach will stay alive [05:16.522]Another week until the worm [05:18.658]Can spin its own cocoon & climb inside [05:22.199]& in about a month [05:23.470]The larval worm has finally turned [05:25.887]Into a wasp who leaves its host & flies [05:29.445]& so the natural cycle is complete [05:33.187]So who says reproduction isn't sweet [05:41.049]NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE [05:44.828]AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE? [05:48.757]YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE [05:52.704]WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE [05:56.707]NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE [06:00.366]AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE? [06:04.105]YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE [06:07.906]WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE