10 Interesting Facts About Vampire Bats

Vampire bats, as their name suggests, are leaf-nosed bats that consume blood for food. In Central and South America, you will find these bats in caves, abandoned buildings, and trees. Three of the bat species that are solely dependent on blood as a source of nutrition are the common vampire bat, the white-winged vampire bat, and the hairy-legged vampire bat. These bats are the only mammals that drink blood to survive. However, that’s not all there is to know about them, so keep reading to discover ten interesting vampire bat facts!

1. Vampire Bats Do Not Suck Blood

In contrast to vampires of myth, vampire bats do not drain their victims of blood. In reality, these small creatures use their sharp teeth to make a small cut and let the blood begin to lightly pool. Afterward, they lap it up using their tongues. When it comes to ingesting the blood of their prey, vampire bats are incredibly graceful as they make the experience quite painless. When a vampire bat consumes its prey’s blood while sleeping, it usually won’t even wake up. Vampire bats can even consume blood for up to 30 minutes.

2. Vampire Bats Must Consume Blood to Survive

Vampire bats are nocturnal and do all of their hunting during the night. Vampire bats must consume blood to survive, which means they are known as obligate sanguivores. As a result, they can die within two days if they don’t find a blood meal. Sometimes vampire bats who have eaten a lot will spit out any remaining blood just to let others of their kind eat. According to Social grooming in the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, the blood they collect is often shared with hungry vampire bats, and in return, they expect to be groomed for their services. It is known as social grooming behavior.

3. Vampire Bat Spit Contains Draculin

A vampire bat’s saliva contains Draculin, a type of protein. It is essential to them, as they use it to prevent the blood from their prey from clotting, allowing the blood to continue flowing into the wound they inflict. A fascinating vampire bat fact about this protein is that it is named after Count Dracula.

4. Vampire Bats Can Drink Human Blood

Don’t worry; even though vampire bats can drink human blood, it’s very rare that they do so. There is a wide variety of prey that vampire bats consume. Most commonly, they’ll feast on livestock animals such as pigs, horses, and cows. The reason is the abundance of these animals. In contrast, other vampire bat species, such as the white-winged vampire bat, seem to prefer birds. Don’t worry; if you are bitten by a vampire bat, you won’t be turning into a vampire anytime soon. Most of the time, you won’t even notice, but also remember that these animals can carry rabies, so it’s important to get checked out immediately.

5. Vampire Bats Use Echolocation

You may not know this, but vampire bats use a variety of senses to locate their prey, from using their smell, sounds, and echolocation to come across their next meal. Vampire bats use echolocation by emitting high-pitched sounds. In this way, the sound echo can be used to determine location and distance. Vampire bats have infrared receptors in their noses as well. Using this technique, they are able to detect heat and observe where the blood vessels are on their prey. Together, these senses assist the vampire bat in deciding when and how to eat.

6. Vampire Bats Live In Colonies

Another fact about vampire bats is that they are social creatures and live in colonies known as roosting sites. These colonies may have a few hundred bats, depending on the location. In vampire bat roosting sites, there usually are a few males, a group of females, and their young. It is said that some female vampire bats will even choose to adopt and take care of the young of another female bat that may have passed away. As they share food and groom each other, vampire bats will protect the well-being of each other throughout their roosts.

7. Vampire Bats Can Run

Out of thousands of species of bats, vampire bats are the only ones who can partake in walking, running, and even jumping. Vampire bats have strong hind legs they use to take off after a feeding and even have a special thumb. While most bats will stumble when placed on the ground, vampire bats are able to go from walking to running within seconds of being placed on the ground.

8. Vampire Bats Have Incredible Eyesight

Vampire bats have extremely good eyesight, which they use to see prey from afar. Their eyesight allows them to tell the difference between a variety of optical patterns and long-range distances. Vampire bats have much better eyesight than many other types of bats.

9. Vampire Bats Reproduce Very Slowly

In comparison with other bats, vampire bats reproduce extremely slowly. Female bats tend to have only one pregnancy per year, as their pregnancies last for about 209 days. Once a female vampire bat is ready to give birth, she will fly to the top of wherever she is residing and begin to hang upside down. The female vampire bat only produces one pup, so she creates a pouch in her wing where she catches the baby vampire bat.

10. Vampire Bats Drink Half Their Weight In Blood

Another interesting vampire bat fact is that when vampire bats find a host to feed on, they will continue going until they feel very well fed. They can drink so much blood in one sitting that sometimes they will become so heavy, making it incredibly hard for them to fly. When this happens, a vampire bat will then find a place away from his prey, where he can wait out and digest before he can fly again.