Vampire Bats are Real!

02-01-24 00 / episode: 351

Vampire bats are real. they exist and they actually really do suck blood.

but there's a lot more to these creatures than you can imagine probably.

let's take a look at the surprising truth about these creatures.

hi and welcome to the less Paris podcast episode 351 about vampire bats.

Where do they live?

Vampire bats live in dry and moist climates in warm areas typically around Mexico and South and Central America.

in Mexico they live along the coasts quite a bit.

they usually live in caves but they can also live in abandoned buildings

or old trees if there's enough space in them.

How did they start to suck blood?

Scientists think that the bats started or learned how to suck blood

when they were eating the insects.

they found the insects on the animals and pulled them out because the insects

were eating the animals blood.

after they pull the insect out to eat it there was a wound in the animal

that kept bleeding and they started to eat that blood.

over a long long time they slowly evolved to eat the blood of the animal instead of the insect.

How do they find their prey?

vampire bats almost always go for sleeping animals.

they have a echolocation Skill like the other bats

but this skill has been highly refined to be able

to hear the slow long breathing of an animal that is asleep.

when it hears that slow long breathing it knows

that it's found a good animal to go and feed the on the blood.

How do they know where to bite?

vampire bats have a really cool sensor right near their nose

that is able to find hot and cold areas.

in a place where the blood is close

to the skin it's going to give off heat more

than other areas on the animal so they sense

the Heat and they know that that's where

there's a lot of blood close to the surface of the animal

and if they bite there they can get there meal quickly and easily.

Are they monsters?

you might think if they're drinking blood, they are monsters

but there are many insects that feed on blood

And we don&t think they are monsters.

and on top of that they only take a very small amount of blood,

and it's almost invariably painless and harmless

to the animal that they're feeding on.

so it's really not a problem for the animals. on top of that they're very social creatures.

they always live in groups, and they help each other.

in fact if some of the bats can't feed on any particular night,

some of their friends will give them some of the blood

that they ate because they're able to do that.

they can regurgitate the blood

up from their stomachs

and give it to the bats that couldn't eat that night

so they want to stay in a group

and work together.

vampire bats are really interesting.

thanks for listening.