# Prehensile, rectum eating leech **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2015, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583 "2015-09-01T06:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/1 "2015-09-01T06:56:08Z")
Well, anus _drinking_. I’ll leave it to you whether it is worse than [Cymothoa exigua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua). [This creature](http://www.wired.com/2015/08/absurd-creature-of-the-week-hippo-butt-leech-placobdelloides-jaegerskioeldi/) has found its unique purpose in feeding off the anuses of hippopotamuses (anii of hippopotami if Latin wasn’t your forte). It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/2 "2015-09-01T10:51:48Z")
Best name/thread title combo I’ve seen in a while! ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/3 "2015-09-01T10:52:48Z")
And no, not opening that link TYVM :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/4 "2015-09-01T14:16:41Z")
Great title for a pit thread. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/5 "2015-09-01T14:31:01Z")
Yeah, not so good for a deli. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/6 "2015-09-01T14:44:37Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Well, anus _drinking_. I’ll leave it to you whether it is worse than [Cymothoa exigua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua). > > [This creature](http://www.wired.com/2015/08/absurd-creature-of-the-week-hippo-butt-leech-placobdelloides-jaegerskioeldi/) has found its unique purpose in feeding off the anuses of hippopotamuses (anii of hippopotami if Latin wasn’t your forte). It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. Actually, the plural is simply _ani_ No reason to have two eyes in your rear end. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/7 "2015-09-01T15:29:01Z")
Mike Rowe says “Fuck ya’ll. This is where I draw the line.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/8 "2015-09-01T15:48:02Z")
> [@saje](#): > > And no, not opening that link TYVM :eek: Yer missin’ out. Interesting non-gross pix & words at both links. If you think about it a bit … If you were a leech and were trying to find a place on a hippo that was soft enough to dig your teeth / anchoring scraper into, where would you look? Hippos are pretty well armored except at two points, the entrance and the exit. You’re a lot less likely to be eaten if you homestead the exit. And there’s a steady source of pre-digested food. Sounds like easy living. If you’re a leech. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/9 "2015-09-01T17:05:08Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Yer missin’ out. Interesting non-gross pix & words at both links. > > If you think about it a bit … If you were a leech and were trying to find a place on a hippo that was soft enough to dig your teeth / anchoring scraper into, where would you look? Hippos are pretty well armored except at two points, the entrance and the exit. You’re a lot less likely to be eaten if you homestead the exit. And there’s a steady source of pre-digested food. Sounds like easy living. If you’re a leech. To quote (appropriately for once) Powdered Toast Man, “Cling tenaciously to my buttocks!” Since hippos also sweep their paddly tails like a mad sweeping paddly thing as they crap, it takes even more tenacity to (A) keep clinging amid a hippo shit-storm, and (B) while being battered by a madly flailing hippo paddle-tail. Much props. “Life finds a way”, but I’m glad it’s not my way. ETA: the article makes the same point I make: [Quote=TFA] Once inside, the leech latches on with two suckers. At the back of its body, the more bulbous end, is a big sucker, while at the front is a smaller sucker. **And it’s got to be real sure it can keep a tight grip, for hippo BMs can be rather … explosive: They flap their tails back and forth to fling dung all over the place.** [/quote] Ninja’d by the source material. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/10 "2015-09-01T17:30:20Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Well, anus _drinking_. I’ll leave it to you whether it is worse than [Cymothoa exigua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua). > > . So, throw in a tape worm and you’ll have both ends and the middle covered. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/11 "2015-09-01T20:52:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Actually, the plural is simply _ani_ > No reason to have two eyes in your rear end. Yeah, don’t be greedy. [One is enough.](http://yokai.com/shirime/) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/12 "2015-09-01T21:37:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Actually, the plural is simply _ani_ > No reason to have two eyes in your rear end. I was going for the same thought process that leads people to pluralize “virus” as “virii” for some reason. I guess because “Viri” sounds like an Apple or Nintendo product. > [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Yeah, don’t be greedy. [One is enough.](http://yokai.com/shirime/) Ooh, interesting link (for the rest of the yokai, not just Goatse-san). ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/13 "2015-09-01T23:00:40Z")
I skimmed the title and read it as “Prehensile rectum eating lunch.” I don’t know which is worse. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/14 "2015-09-01T23:35:56Z")
I’m keeping an eye on this thread so I can use it in “Where are sequential threads of yesteryear…” I got dibs on it. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/15 "2015-09-01T23:44:14Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > I’m keeping an eye on this thread so I can use it in “Where are sequential threads of yesteryear…” I got dibs on it. Too late. We’re all over it already. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/16 "2015-09-02T00:17:59Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Too late. We’re all over it already. Okay, I’m late to the game, but I got one in. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/17 "2015-09-02T00:24:08Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Great title for a pit thread. …or as the comic book introduction to the side-kick of Fart Man. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/18 "2015-09-02T00:44:40Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I was going for the same thought process that leads people to pluralize “virus” as “virii” for some reason. I guess because “Viri” sounds like an Apple or Nintendo product. Ironically, the plural of virus is not viri, either. It has no attested plural in Classical Latin (being a mass noun, meaning slime or poison), and its it’s not really possible to figure out what it should be from similar words, as it’s an irregular word to start with. Latin is a PITA language. \>\_\> > [@](#): > > Ooh, interesting link (for the rest of the yokai, not just Goatse-san). I love that site so much. Japanese monsters are just so damn interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/19 "2015-09-02T01:31:26Z")
Normally I have a horror of parasites, but in this case I don’t know which has it worse, the hippo or the leech. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2015, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehensile-rectum-eating-leech/729583/20 "2015-09-02T03:56:58Z")
There are a number of You Tube videos of defecating hippos. Some of them have even gone viral. Let’s just say they make a really big mess while they’re doing this.