Compared with living free, the parasitic way of life has many attractions. Parasites create
problems for all animals. Potential hosts can respond by learning to live with parasites …

Hygiene has been studied from multiple perspectives, including that of history. I define
hygiene as the set of behaviours that animals, including humans, use to avoid infection. I …

Fleas are one of the most interesting and fascinating taxa of ectoparasites. All species in this
relatively small order are obligatory haematophagous (blood-feeding) parasites of higher …

Concluding remarks Bat flies are highly specialized for a nearly permanent ectoparasitic
relationship with their hosts, the Chiroptera. Although known life-histories are rather similar …

The Smithsonian Venezuela Project (SVP) conducted extensive surveys of mammals and
ectoparasites in the 1960s. The 25 238 individuals and 130 species of bat collected by SVP …

Host specificity gauges the degree to which a parasite occurs in association with a single
host species. The measure is indicative of properties of the host and parasite, as well as …

Background Bats receive increasing attention in infectious disease studies, because of their
well recognized status as reservoir species for various infectious agents. This is even more …

Background Massive die-offs of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) have been occurring
since 2006 in hibernation sites around Albany, New York, and this problem has spread to …

Evidence for long-term cooperative relationships comes from several social birds and
mammals. Vampire bats demonstrate cooperative social bonds, and like primates, they …

Environmental conditions, including anthropogenic disturbance, can significantly alter host
and parasite communities. Yet, our current knowledge is based mainly on endoparasites …