Vampire Bats
Vampire bats do drink blood. But not to worry, they're only found in South America and, due to zoo escapes and human-assisted migration, small populations live in the Southern US and Central Africa. It's also very rare that they drink human blood. Vampire bats only have a tiny wingspan of about eight inches or twenty centimetres. Amazingly, these tiny creatures have a body the rough size of an adult's thumb! Most people think that the only way for vampire bats to travel is flying, which is the main form of movement but this extraordinary bat can also hop, creep and run at a fantastis rate of up to five miles or eight kilometres per hour, especially when startled. They also bite the feet and ankles of their prey. There are three species of vampire bats, which may surprise you because some people think that the vampire bat is a species of its own. The three types are the Common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), the White-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi) and the Hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphyilla ecaudata). Aside from the fact that they only drink blood, these vampire bats can be separated from their fruit- and insect-eating cousins by their short noses. Important thermo receptors assist the Common vampire bat in locating areas where the blood flows close to the skin of the victim, allowing easy access to the food. The White-winged and the Hairy-legged bats feed on birds, while the Common vampire bats prefer mammals, and sometimes humans while they're sleeping. The Common bats do this in three steps:
1. Firstly, they use their echolocation (ec-oh-low-ca-shone) techniques (echolocation is where the bats emit high-pitched sounds, and listen to the sounds' echo to determine where things are) and their eyesight (vampire bats have excellent eyesight and they may be able to see their prey from a distance of four hundred and twenty-nine feet or one hundred and thirty metres) to locate their victim.
2. Secondly, they use their canine and molar teeth to shave away the hair or fur on the area they want to feast on. After all, even vampire bats don’t like hair in their food.
3. Next, they make a one to five millimetre deep incision with their upper front teeth and drink.
1. Firstly, they use their echolocation (ec-oh-low-ca-shone) techniques (echolocation is where the bats emit high-pitched sounds, and listen to the sounds' echo to determine where things are) and their eyesight (vampire bats have excellent eyesight and they may be able to see their prey from a distance of four hundred and twenty-nine feet or one hundred and thirty metres) to locate their victim.
2. Secondly, they use their canine and molar teeth to shave away the hair or fur on the area they want to feast on. After all, even vampire bats don’t like hair in their food.
3. Next, they make a one to five millimetre deep incision with their upper front teeth and drink.