Nature's real life zombies

It took awhile to pull this piece together but once you read it you'll wonder if just about every bit of behavior your see in the world isn't driven by parasites.

I was amazed to read about Toxoplasma gondii (it's in the story) and it's ability to control mouse behavior. Studying one puppet master lead to another soon I'd found far too many stories for comfort about animals infected by parasites who end up doing their bidding. It was the perfect Halloween piece and I'm so grateful Carl Zimmer of NatGeo for writing about this little guy (below) known as The Tongue Biter, the little isopod who lives in a fishes' mouth. Paging Stephen King....

You just have to read it: Nature's Walking Dead: Real Life Zombies. Ew. I mean, cool! I mean ew....


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