A gnat tormented a moose! 10,000 bites😱
🦟🦌10,000 bites in 20 minutes per animal.
Our friends from "Na-Okhotu RF" posted an interesting and terrifying article with facts.
Gnats are one of the most powerful regulators of animal populations.
Up to 70% of elk calves under two months of age can die from simulidotoxicosis. (Gusev, Bolotnikov 2009)
An adult elk loses up to 200 ml of blood per day (Poznanin 1985)
Up to 50% of chicks can die from anemia and intoxication during years of increased gnat activity (Kalyakin, Grabovsky 2012)
Up to 15% of Siberian roe deer calf mortality is caused by the nasopharyngeal botfly. (Savelyev 2017)
The midge and horsefly season has lengthened by 2-3 weeks over the past 30 years.