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Project Noah Nature School
Haemadipsa picta
Found in abundance in the Park especially on a rainy day. Various sizes from 2 cm to 6 cm when they stretches. They are ambush predators, sensing out the heats of animals passing by, and then attach themselves to the body of the animals to start feeding. Most leeches are hematophagous, as they are predominantly blood suckers that feed on blood from vertebrate and invertebrate animals. If not disturb and if they get a full feeding, they can store up to 5 times their body mass of blood. The leech produces an anticoagulant that prevents the stored blood from clotting, plus other agents that inhibit microbial decay of the blood. These measures are so effective that they may need to feed only twice a year. The anticoagulant also makes the animals (in this case, me) to continue bleeding hours after they have detached themselves :(
Tropical rain forest
I saw the most leeches in my life in this Park, so many of them especially on the 2nd and 3rd day as it was raining in the afternoon and early evening. And this leeches were out 'hunting'! Despite wearing protective gears, I was bitten, not on my legs but my waist areas as I forgot to tuck in my t-shirt. They crawls up the pants, and I even find a few hiding in my pants pockets. Several of them found their way onto my camera, not sure if they drops from the trees. This leeches took the fun away from the walks and hikes as every few steps, I had to check myself for leeches :(
Spotted on May 9, 2015
Submitted on May 29, 2015
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