The Real Life Vampire: the Vampire Bat
Monster Monday
October 26, 2015
Vampire bat (c) Stephen Dalton, Photo Researchers
As Halloween approaches, people spook one another by talking about or dressing like vampires. But you can really freak out your friends with tales of a real life vampire: the vampire bat.
Three species of vampire bat live in Central and South America. As the name suggests, the bat survives by drinking blood, usually from cattle, fowl, or horses. Vampire bats have been known to feed on people, but only in rare cases.
A vampire bat homes in on its next meal by listening for the measured breathing of a sleeping animal. Then, it sneaks up along the ground. As bats evolved (developed over time) to master flight, most of them lost the ability to move along the ground. But the vampire bat pulls itself along with its powerful wings, a unique gait that allows walking, running, and even jumping.
Special heat receptors on the bat’s nose help it locate a spot where the blood flows close to the surface. Then the bat gently slices into the animal’s skin with razor sharp teeth, lapping up the spilling blood with its tongue. Special chemicals called anticoagulants (an tee koh AG yuh luhntz) in the bat’s saliva help to prevent clotting and keep the blood flowing.
Blood is mostly water, and water is quite heavy, so a good meal can really weigh down a vampire bat, preventing flight. To accommodate this, the bat has evolved the ability to process fluids quickly. Plasma, the fluid portion of blood, absorbs rapidly through the stomach walls and is sent to the kidneys, to be released in urine. This release begins as little as two minutes after the bat starts feeding.
Drinking the blood of other animals may make the vampire bat seem cruel or frightful, but the creature is only acting naturally. Aside from drinking blood, vampire bats do have a fairly unique and helpful—if seemingly distasteful—social behavior. A vampire bat needs to eat every couple of days to stay alive. If an individual misses a meal, another bat may help out, sharing food by regurgitating (throwing up) some of its meal into the starving bat’s mouth.
