The live lamprey eels attached to the aquarium glass by their gaping maws in the Field Museum’s Bloodsuckers special exhibition are both fascinating to watch and nightmare fuel for anyone who recalls sci-fi monsters from the likes of Stranger Things and Dune. The leeches undulating across the length of the neighboring aquarium are almost beautiful. For leeches, anyway.
This bite-size exhibition, produced by Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, is chock full of interesting factoids about bloodsuckers ranging from mosquitoes to vampire bats. For instance, the world contains more than 30,000 blood-feeding species (don’t let the bedbugs bite!). Also, ultrasonic bug repellers are ineffective against mosquitoes because the ones that bite are nearly deaf. Sweetgrass can help ward them off, though. The extended look at how leeches have been used in medicine throughout the ages–including to help reattach severed fingers and toes today by stimulating blood flow with their strong anticoagulant mucous–also provides much food for thought.
The more whimsical “legends” portion of the exhibition includes a model of a chupacabra with creepy glowing eyes (scientists think these Latin American cryptids are just mangy wild dogs) along with posters, video clips and models depicting vampires and other B-movie monsters thirsty for our blood. The timeline showing the evolution of the vampire legend over many centuries is well worth a read before you take a gander at the stakes, silver bullets and other deadly tools of the Dracula-fighting trade.
Bloodsuckers won’t raise your blood pressure, but it’s a fun, informative way to spend half an hour. And if you attend the Field and roll up a sleeve to donate during one of three associated blood-drive days coming up in 2024, you can even score free museum admission.
The pop-up gift shop at the end, which includes a small plush red blood cell for $22, provides yet another perspective on bloodsucking, especially for visitors with souvenir-seeking kids.
Bloodsuckers: Legends to Leeches runs through September 2 at the Field Museum.
Photo by Frank Sennett
