‘Weird Looking’ Otter Poo Reveals an Unexpected Role in Parasite Control
Receiving an unsolicited photo of worm-infested animal poop would make anyone cringe, unless you’re a parasite expert like Katrina Lohan. When a colleague sent her a snapshot of a watery pile of feces with a fire-engine red worm inside, she was instantly intrigued. “She sent this to me and was like, ‘I think this is a parasite, are you interested in studying river otters?’ And I was like, ‘Ooh, I think that’s a parasite too. And yes, I am,’” Lohan, a parasite ecologist who leads the Coastal Dis