ON THE WILD SIDE Bat out of HELL
A few bat species in the forests of Central and South America will feed on blood if they can find it, but there are only three living species of bats that eat nothing but blood.
Such a diet – called hematophagy – is undertaken by the common vampire bat, the white-winged vampire bat and, my personal favourite, the hairy-legged vampire bat.
The latter two drink mostly birds’ blood, while the common prefers to drink from mammals… sometimes even from us humans.
Most bats don’t move very well on land, but vampire bats are special. They need to land to approach their prey – sleeping animals and birds – or they would wake them.
With specially evolved wings they can walk, run and even jump, something unheard of in other bat species.
They creep up to sleeping prey using very strong hearing to listen for the even breathing of a snoozing supper, and crawl on to them.
They have infra-red and heat sensors that help them find the area where a vein is close to the skin. If the area rea is too hairy, they will play Sweeney eeney Todd and shave it before biting. Their teeth are so sharp rp that even museums and labs s have to be careful when handling ndling vampire bat skulls because they ey can still cut you.
Their teeth have no enamel so o are constantly razor sharp. Their r saliva is full of compounds that t stop blood clotting as they y drink it, and they can down half lf their body weight in 20 minutes. es.
Drinking so much means they would be too heavy h to fly, but they digest it very rap rapidly and start peeing two minute minutes after drinking.
They can only go about two days without food, but the lucky bat who fifind fififififind finds a meal will look for hungry bats in the colony to share his own blood with so everyone survives. Not just direct family either – any hungry bat is looked after. Maybe t they aren’t so creepy…