SLURP! This red leech is swallowing an earthworm like a spaghetti noodle. The Kinabalu giant red leech is found only on Mount Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. It can grow up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) long. The giant blue earthworm it’s eating grows even larger—up to 70 cm (27 in.) long. That’s about the length of a person’s arm!
Paul Williams, a documentary filmmaker for the BBC in the United Kingdom, spotted the gruesome feeding frenzy while filming after a rainstorm on Mount Kinabalu. He and his film crew came across an area where giant earthworms had emerged from the wet ground. Red leeches were all over the ground, sucking them up.
Most leeches are parasites that survive by latching onto other animals and sucking their blood. But not giant red leeches. Their diet consists of worms. Williams noticed that before snagging an earthworm, a giant red leech would feel along the worm’s body with its mouth. “It looked like it had quivering lips, like a sci-fi monster,” says Williams. Once the leech located the tail or head of the worm, it would begin to engulf its prey. As the leech ate, its muscular body crushed the worm. Squishing the worm allowed the leech to swallow the meal that was larger than itself.
Williams says his film left out the grossest part: “One of the leeches bit off more than it could chew,” he says. It slurped up about half the worm and then barfed it out!