Tale of the Tape
Here we have a black bear who is in the throes of passing several lengthy tapeworms.
Bears that depend on the yearly salmon run often become hosts for these alien looking organisms that lodge themselves into the bruin’s intestinal tract.
The life cycle of the broad fish tapeworm is a flat circle: eggs are released into the wild via the droppings of a host bear, they wash into the rivers and streams where crustaceans gobble them up. Next, salmon chow down on these compromised mud bugs and finally (you guessed it) the bears - who are able to crush 20+ salmon per day at the run’s peak - do just that.
The tapeworm larva then latches on to the interior wall of the bear’s stomach and this parasitic life cycle begins anew. The adult tapeworm keeps itself alive by deriving nutrients through its skin from what the bear eats, and as you can see from the above clip, one bear can host multiple parasites at one time.
Humans can get these as well by consuming uncooked salmon, which is really awesome if, like me, you also love to go out and eat sushi from time to time. This last part definitely wasn’t written by MY tapeworm, who is an accomplished slam poet and dabbles in antiquing.