There are some forms of life that I am perfectly happy to let live in my body. All the microbes and bacteria and what have you that do whatever (I am not a doctor) inside my guts and stuff? Hell yeah. Welcome, friends — pull up a seat and get to work breaking down food or fighting disease, or whatever it is you do. You rule.
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Tapeworms, on the other hand, can get absolutely fucked. Actually any kind of worms. I’m happy to make this a blanket rule: No worms in my body, please. Nothing evokes a Cronenberg-style body horror in me more than the thought of some long, wormy bastard taking up space in my intestines and feeding on nutrients that should well be mine.
If this is something you find equally as horrifying as I do and you are in the mood to completely ruin your day, then I have such a special treat for you: A 13-foot long tapeworm found in some bear poop. Because it came out of a bear. That it was living in. Behold:
Pictured: A nightmare. (Source: Harvey Thommasen, Twitter / Dr. Tara Stewart Merrill)
Biologist Dr Tara Stewart Merrill tweeted this horrifying image today after receiving it from friends in Bella Coola, British Columbia.
Bears have a tendency to pick up larval tapeworms from eating raw fish, and also often they will eject these tapeworms through their buttholes. Like this bear, that was filmed in 2012 with a long-ass tapeworm hanging out of its, well, ass:
Nature is truly beautiful.
