sharp teeth

Vampire bats are the only bats and the only mammals that feed mainly on blood of other animals!

Vampire bats, besides flying, can walk, run, jump and hop!

Vampire bats do not bite or kill their prey.  They drink the blood of their prey.

A vampire bat can drink at least 20 grams of blood at each meal which it takes once every night.

a vampire bat sucking blood from a pig’s ear

A vampire bat hunts in a very different way: it sneaks close to the animals on the ground, makes a small cut on the soft part where blood flows close to the skin, and when the blood starts to flow out of the wound, it laps it up with the help of the grooves on its tongue.  {When an animal is wounded, the blood from the wound naturally becomes hard (clots) to avoid losing too much.} And to prevent the blood from clotting, the vampire bat uses its saliva which has anti-coagulant in it (= ‘anti-coagulant’ = a substance which makes the blood flow freely from a wound without becoming hard)!

As the bats saliva has anti-coagulant in it, it is being tested to be used in human patients who suffer from heart stokes!!

(a human vampire about to suck blood from his female victim)

The vampire bats live in dark places, such as caves, tree holes, natural and man-made structures, hanging upside down from the ceilings.  They live in small or large groups called ‘colonies’.  Some groups may be some ten bats, and some others may be hundreds.  When a vampire bat does not get a blood feed, it borrows some from other bats which have had, and the ‘roost-mates’ exchange these “blood donations” by way of mouth-to-mouth kissing!!

In most cases, people are given names after the animals, like a pig for a man who is dirty and eats a lot, a fox for a cunning person, etc.  But with these bats, the name ‘vampire’ is given to them after the medieval legendary character ‘Dracula’ who rose from his grave and started biting people for a blood feed each night!  The name ‘vampire’ is also given to a dead person who rises from their graves at night to feed on the living people’s blood!

There are several horror stories from folklore which have been made into animated and feature films/movies that have given these little animals a very bad reputation!