Did you know that there is a certain creature that drinks blood? Under the cover of darkness, these monsters emerge from the shadows searching for their prey. Just in case you were wondering, we are not talking about vampires, or at least not the ones you’re thinking of.
We are talking about a creature that can live in complete darkness and use echoing ultrasonic sound vibrations to look for their prey or move around. Welcome to Wildlife Science and today we are gonna meet the pets of Dracula – Vampire Bats!
Ok, just to put your mind at ease, humans are not on the menu for these creatures,but if we were, getting a bite probably won’t transform you into a vampire, that’s a relief! So how else do they resemble vampires from our fictional movies?
Do they melt under the sun like Dracula? Well, that’s a big no, however, they do not like the day like regular bats, so they don’t usually leave their caves till nighttime.
With these bats, there is more to what meets the eye than drinking blood and in this video, we’ll be revealing the unique existence of one of the most bizarre creatures on this planet. Today, only three out of over 1,300 species of bats found worldwide are vampire bats. When thirsty, these creatures prefer a fluid that tastes better than water, to them at least.
As a result, they must consume blood every two to three days or they would starve to death, scary isn’t it? However, some vampire bats tend to be caring to each other so that’s usually not an issue for them. In exchange for grooming, some well-fed bats frequently regurgitate or spit up blood to share with their blood brothers and sisters.
Most notably, female bats in confinement appear to be generally kind to pregnant bats. Most bats have been seen feeding the mother following the birth of a baby for roughly two weeks. Aww, isn’t that sweet?
They have long thumbs that direct and propel it off the ground while muscular rear legs and wrists complement its weight. Just like dogs, heat sensors are located close to the nose, allowing them to detect the locations of warm blood vessels close to the skin of their victims.
But despite having wings they tend to prefer to crawl to their prey rather than fly for it. Although they have been known to land on the backs of bigger mammals to bite them on the back.
When the sun sets and the rest of the world is going to bed the moon rises and it’s their turn to prowl the world. They go home when the sun rises and spend the day dangling upside down and sleep in complete darkness.
As a matter of fact, these creatures spend most of the day hanging around and sleeping upside down in a variety of locations, including attics, bridges, and the interiors of hollow trees and cave roofs. This is probably why so many of them loved to hang out in the batcave, get it? HANG out! Now think back to the last time you hung from the monkey bars upside down. You probably felt all the blood rush to your head within a few minutes and had to sit down.
Imagine staying there all day long. Yikes, talk about nauseating! Fortunately for them, these creatures have developed a unique adaptation that makes sleeping upside down as easy as it is for people to sleep in a bed. Bats can have a secure nap by hiding out where few animals would not consider looking.
Although you might assume that birds would be a threat to vampire bats, the mysterious locations where they sleep do not allow the nesting of birds or of pretty much any creature that could pose a threat to them.
This creature can live in groups of thousands or more. Sometimes, they are normally in colonies of hundreds and are capable of consuming the blood of 25 cows in a single year! They prey mostly on sleeping cattle and horses, although they have also been known to bite people! They use their razor-sharp incisor teeth to make a tiny puncture in the skin of their prey, and this may include sleeping humans.
The resting animals typically miss the cut, which causes the bats to lick the blood that is oozing from the little wound. In a large portion of their territory, vampire bats are regarded as pests because they frequently transfer rabies to livestock or other serious diseases or infections, which as you may remember from Stephen King’s novel, Cujo, rabies can drive animals wild and practically turn them into monsters in some extreme cases. Remember folks, get those rabies vaccines for your pets.
Vampire bats spend roughly 30 minutes consuming the blood of their victims. But how is it able to suck blood for this long without triggering the animal? The vampire bat uses its tongue to gobble up the streaming blood after biting the animal. It stops the blood from clotting by secreting anticoagulating saliva. So they’ll bite you, and patch up the bite, but don’t expect it to be a clean job.
It may come as a surprise that young vampire bats consume milk instead of blood. Even while flying, they cling to their mothers and only suck her milk for almost three months. This happens until they have mastered self-feeding.
In order to roost together, females and their young ones form stable groupings. Except for powerful males, who nest with the females, they typically roost separately. Some unrelated pairs have even been observed traveling together, suggesting that these social contacts may be a crucial first step in establishing lifetime alliances. Similar to vampires living in groups, wow they are more similar than we thought.
It can be challenging to remain on a blood diet for more than ten years. Given that blood is roughly 80% water, sucking it is inadequate and doesn’t provide many nutrients. The majority of nutrients and vitamins are very lacking, and of the few that are there, most of them are proteins, which makes it very challenging for the kidneys to process.
In reality, blood feeders like vampire bats run the risk of iron poisoning, overtaxing their kidneys, and bladder, which can ultimately result in organ failure and death. Looks like they aren’t eternal or in need of stakes to the heart like real vampires.
Given the prevalence of blood-borne infections, drinking bodily fluids can potentially be detrimental. These difficulties could be the cause of the behavior’s rarity among vertebrates. In fact, there are simply too many obstacles to surmount for such a meager meal. But how do vampire bats survive on a diet of red fluids?
This is a result of some bacterias that exists in their guts. It turns out that these bacteria are essential for blood-feeding survival. A population of helpful bacteria that vampire bats have nurtured over time has become exceptionally adapted to their peculiar diet. When compared to other bats, these microorganisms function extremely differently.
Funny enough, most bats go around picking fruits, flies, and flowers, but how did the vampire bats end up along the dark route? Magic, or a curse maybe? Who knows? But they aren’t the only ones with this strange diet. Around 220 million years ago, the earliest mosquitoes were the only known bloodsuckers.
Fossils have revealed their large mouthpieces, which are most likely used similarly to current mosquitoes today. But now, there are thousands of species that consume blood. In fact, invertebrates that feed on blood have undergone multiple evolutionary changes, including leeches, nematodes, worms, and of course, insects. Today, there are currently about 15,000 species of invertebrates that feed on blood.
It’s a very uncommon technique in vertebrates. As a matter of fact, the only mammals that only consume blood are vampire bats. They belong to the philostenidae family, also known as the new world leaf-nosed bats, which is a sizable and diversified group.
Within this family, there are at least 160 different types of bats. Most of them consume nectar and fruits as food. There are only three remaining species of the lineage that originated the first vampires approximately 26 million years ago. Maybe that’s when they were cursed!
Each belongs to a different genus. The three types of vampire bats are the common vampire bat, white-winged vampire bat, and hairy-legged vampire bat. Although it is believed that blood-eating only once originated in a common ancestor among the three vampires, these bats do more than just consume blood.
Several characteristics that bats already possessed helped them adapt to the bloody way of life. First of all, because they were nocturnal, they could prey on victims as they slept. They had the ability to fly, which allowed them to scour vast distances for food.
It’s possible that the ancestors of these early vampires were insect-eating bats that gorged on the parasites of huge animals. They might have accidentally sucked some blood, and over time developed a thirst for the red liquid.
Vampire bats are pretty amazing, strange and unique creatures who probably won’t be going out of extinction anytime soon. Unless for some reason, the world runs out of blood, for the real life vampires.[1]https://www.depts.ttu.edu/nsrl/get-involved/downloads/vampire-bat-exhibit.pdf[2]Viruses | Free Full-Text | Vampire Bat Rabies: Ecology, Epidemiology and Control (mdpi.com)
Reviewed by:
Dr. Muhammad Khalid Mukhtar (Ph.D.)
University of Sargodha, Sargodha
References
| ↑1 | https://www.depts.ttu.edu/nsrl/get-involved/downloads/vampire-bat-exhibit.pdf |
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| ↑2 | Viruses | Free Full-Text | Vampire Bat Rabies: Ecology, Epidemiology and Control (mdpi.com) |