Dark Banquet

August 11, 2008
In this salmagundi of abstruse science, informative history and engaging personal anecdotes, Schutt's fascination for “sanguivores” goes a long way toward disarming, while defining, our primal fear of creatures that feed on blood. For all their fearsome rep@utation, only three of 1,100 bat species savor blood, and one of those preys exclusively on chickens. The author doesn't make sanguivores entirely cuddly: part two opens with the horrifying theory that George Washington was likely bled to death by ill-informed doctors and eager leeches, and includes an account of the first dog-to-dog transfusion in 1666 (the first successful human transfusion was in 1901). In part three, Schutt surveys other blood feeders: leeches currently making a comeback in modern medicine, pesky bedbugs and chiggers, and potentially lethal mosquitoes and ticks. One oddity (and typically fascinating tidbit) in the sanguivore world is the “vampire finch” of the Galapagos, which Schutt theorizes is evolving before scientists' eyes, turning to blood-sipping when other nourishment is in short supply. Passages that focus on the science can be a slog, but are quickly alleviated by sections that are witty and illuminating.

August 15, 2008
The subjects of this bookvampire bats, leeches, bed bugs, mites, ticks, and candiru (the blood-sucking catfish of the Amazon River)are creatures that often repulse us. But Schutt (biology, C.W. Post Coll.; mammology, American Museum of Natural History) hooks the reader on the first page with a riveting description of how the Trinidadian white-winged vampire bat mimics the behavior of a baby chick in order to nestle under the mother hen and bleed her. Schutt's hands-on experience with vampire bats, both in the wild and in the lab, makes his chapters on bats particularly engaging. Yet this is a well-rounded exploration of blood feeders from both a biological perspective (habitat, diet, life cycle) and an evolutionary one (how and why obligate blood feeding evolved). Though the author crams too much information into too many excessively long footnotes and the illustrations lack captions, the book remains engrossing science. It is no small feat to create an appreciation for organisms that at the very least pester us and at the very worst can kill us. An excellent choice for the high school student considering a science career and for the general reader.Cynthia Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Lib., Flemington, NJ

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2008
Schutt is a bat biologist who studies the behavior of vampire bats, those famous blood suckers of the South American tropics. While studying the three species of vampires, he became interested in the properties of blood itself and ofother blood-feeding animals. In a chatty, humorous style, the author first talks of his bat research and the species of vampire bat that will nuzzle its way under a brooding hen to feed on her highly vascularized brood patch. In the second part of the book, Schutt tells of blood itself, its functions in the body and how it is transported by the circulatory system. He describes early medicine and its love of bloodletting, leading to the extensive use of medicinal leechesa practice that continues today. In the final section, the author introduces us to several other sanguivores, including chiggers, ticks, and bedbugs. With great scientific accuracy (backed up by extensive notes and a bibliography), text couched in laymans terms, anda sense of breathless discovery, Schutt will make blood feeding just another choice on the culinary spectrum.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)