Vampire Bat
Vampire bats(Desmodus rotundus) are bats that feed on blood. This particular habit in certain animals is known as 'hematophagy'. There are only three bat species that actually feed on blood: The Common Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus), the Hairy-legged Vampire Bat (Diphylla ecaudata) and the White-winged Vampire Bat (Diaemus youngi).
All three species are native to the Rainforests of America, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.
Vampire bats very rarely bite people because they apparently dislike human blood. The three species of Bats are quite different from each other and are therefore placed within different genera (no other species are currently classified in any of the three genera concerned). But they are related.
Rainforest Bat Characteristics Vampire bats have burnt amber coloured fur on their backside while soft and velvety light brown fur that covers their belly. Vampire bats have a wingspan of about 8 inches and a body about the size of an adults thumb.
Unlike fruit-eating bats, the vampire bats have a short, conical muzzle without a nose leaf. Instead they have naked pads with U-shaped grooves at the tip. The common vampire bat also has specialised infrared sensors on its nose, by which it perceives temperature. A nucleus has been found in the brain of vampire bats that has a similar position and has similar histology to the infrared nucleus of infrared sensitive snakes.
Vampire bats have small ears and a short tail membrane. Their front teeth are specialised for cutting and their back teeth are much smaller than in other bats. Their digestive systems are also specialised for their liquid diet. The saliva of vampire bats contains the substance, 'draculin', which prevents the victims blood from clotting. Vampire bats therefore, lap blood rather than suck it as most people imagine.
Rainforest Bat Diet Vampire Bats only come out to feed when it is fully dark. Like fruit-eating bats and unlike insectivorous and fish-eating bats, they only emit low-energy sound pulses. The Common Vampire Bat feeds mostly on the blood of mammals, whereas the Hairy-legged Vampire Bat, and the White-winged Vampire Bat feed on the blood of birds.
Using their sharp teeth, the bats make tiny cuts in the skin of a sleeping animal. The bats' saliva contains a chemical that keeps the blood from clotting. The bats then lap up the blood that oozes from the wound. Another chemical in their saliva numbs the animal's skin and keeps them from waking up.
Vampire bats do not kill their prey. They only take about a teaspoon or two of blood at a feeding. Since bats rarely carry rabies, there is little chance their victims will die from that disease. However, it has been said that some do carry the disease and it is not the blood-sucking that kills the victim, but the transfer of the rabies. I guess it depends upon species and whether that species has contracted the disease.
When the bats have finished their meal, they are often so engorged with blood that they are too heavy to fly, so they have to retire in a place away from the victims to digest their meal before taking flight.
A vampire bat finds its prey with echolocation (use of ultra-high frequency sounds for navigation), smell, and sound. They fly about one metre above the ground. Then they use special heat sensors in their noses to find veins that are close to the skin.
Once the common vampire bat locates a host, usually a sleeping mammal, they land and approach it on the ground. A recent study found that common vampire bats can, in addition to walking, run at speeds of up to 1.2 metres per second. Vampire bats locate a suitable place to bite their victims using their infrared sensors.
The feeding pattern of the vampire bat adds a layer of complexity to its anatomy. Because they often do not find host organisms for many hours and may have to fly a long distance to do so, vampire bats usually feed in enormous quantities. This influx of proteins can however make the bat too heavy to fly. Vampire bats have so much stealth that they can drink for 30 minutes without awakening the animal. If vampire bats do not get blood for two days, they will eventually die, but that is less likely to happen. Female bats are generous and will give their blood to other bats who lack food.
Apparently, the bats urinary system accommodates this by releasing dilute urine consisting of a lot of water and fewer solutes. However, when the bat is resting, a new problem is faced. The large amounts of protein create excess urea and must be disposed of. The urinary system of the vampire bat then uses various hormones to make concentrated urine which consists of more urea and less water.
Rainforest Bat Habitats Vampire bats tend to live in almost completely dark places, such as caves, old wells, hollow trees and buildings. Colonies can range from a single individual to thousands. Vampire bats often roost with other species of bat.
Rainforest Bat Reproduction Common vampire bats will almost always have only one offspring per breeding season. Each colony will typically contain only one reproducing male, with around twenty females and their offspring. Vampire bats need blood at least once every few days to survive. If they cannot get blood, they will approach another vampire bat whilst roosting, asking for a blood 'transfusion'. The blood is exchanged mouth-to-mouth in a motion that looks very much like kissing. Their babies use tiny thumbs in the middle of the wing to cling on the mothers furry belly.
Rainforest Bat Lifespan Vampire bats can live up to 9 years in the wild and up to 19 in captivity.
Rainforest Bat Conservation Status Vampire bats are not an endangered species and have a conservation status of being 'Least Concern'.
Vampire Bat Myths
Myths and legends from all over the world portray bats as blood-sucking demons.
IT'S TRUE! Not really, here are some facts:
Bats are not blind. Most bats can see as well as humans. Fruit bats have eyesight that is adapted to low-light, much like cats. Fruit bats also see in color.
Vampires have not always been associated with bats, although both were considered mysterious and somewhat supernatural. Bram Stroker's "Dracula" was the first known connection. Stoker had seen a newspaper article on the bats and decided to include it in his book.
Bats are not flying mice. They are not even remotely related to rodents. Bats are such unique animals that scientists have placed them in a group all their own, called 'Chiroptera’, which means hand-wing. Bats are grouped with primates and lemurs in an order called Archonta.
Bats are shy, gentle, and intelligent and they are among the slowest reproducing animals on earth.
Vampire Bats are the only known mammals that exist entirely on a diet of blood. Their preferred prey are lareg birds, horses, cows and pigs.
Perhaps as a result of being so misunderstood, Vampire Bats and many other bat species are at risk of extinction.
Fears about vampire bats are fueled by a lot of misconceptions. A common one is that the bats bite the throats of their human victims. This is very far from the truth.
Happy Halloween!
http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/rainforests/vampbats_about.html
The most abundant mammals in the rainforest are not large ground-dwelling creatures, but bats. The tropics have the greatest variety of bats, and accordingly, the most diverse mammalian group of the tropical rainforest is bats, making up over 50 percent of mammal species. Bats range in size from the giant flying foxes, with wingspans of six feet (1.8 m), to the tiny bumblebee bat of Thailand, the world's smallest mammal, weighing less than an American penny. Equally diverse are the feeding habits of tropical bats, which include fruit, nectar, blood, and carnivorous feeders; and the places bats choose for shelter.
Although most bats of the world are insectivores, rainforests have a high percentage of fruit eaters. While insectivorous and other carnivorous bats rely on echolocation to find their prey, fruit-eating bats depend mostly on sight and a sophisticated sense of smell. True fruit-eating bats, the flying foxes of Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Australia, did not reach the New World, so their niche was filled by spear-nosed fruit bats which evolved from insect-eating bats. Today, countless canopy plant species depend on bats for pollination or seed dispersal, making bats the best mammalian dispersal agents.
Flying foxes are the fruit bats of the Old World and are limited to the tropics by their need for fruit year round. Visitors to areas frequented by flying foxes are likely to notice trees with hundreds and even thousands of pod-like forms that shriek incessantly. These are likely a colony of flying foxes. The individual flying fox's place in the tree is determined by its stature in the colony which is established by fighting. The most powerful males occupy the highest, safest areas, while the weaker bats occupy lower, more exposed branches. There are places in the well-developed pecking order for sentries, which are posted to warn the colony when danger approaches.
Nectar-feeding bats are important pollinators of tropical rainforest plants. Like fruit-eating bats, nectar-feeding bats rely on sight to locate their primary source of food: flower nectar. Thus flowers targeted by these nocturnal bats are night-blooming and are easily seen in relative darkness with large, white petals. Nectar-feeding bats are equipped with a long, thin tongue, like that of a hummingbird, to reach nectar deep inside the flower.
Vampire bats of the New World are well-known and quite often feared for their feeding on the blood of animals, even humans. Despite the stories of Dracula and Transylvania, vampire bats feed mostly on farm animals in tropical regions. In fact, man has inadvertently increased vampire bat populations by introduction of livestock, mostly cattle, into formerly forested lands. Vampires, which are only active in the darkest hours of the night in order to avoid predators, feed by using their chisel-like incisor teeth to make a small incision in the animal's skin. The bat drinks, not sucks, the blood which freely flows from the wound thanks to an anticoagulant, which incidentally, has been chemically isolated to create a drug for treating heart attack victims. Strangely, vampires prefer to land at a distance from their victim and approach by foot. Animals fed upon by vampires are rarely injured or killed by the feeding. Despite their cruel reputation, vampire bats have been known to adopt and feed orphaned bats.
Besides the best known insectivorous bats—each individual may eat over 3,000 insects a night—several bat species feed on vertebrate animals. One of the most notable bat groups are the fishing bats which have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect minnows swimming at the water surface. Other bats feed on frogs and are able to distinguish poisonous species from edible species by listening to their calls. These bats associate the bad experience of eating one of these toxic frogs with their call.
Bats are best known for roosting in caves during the day when they are inactive. Where caves exist in the tropics, many bats do roost there and in some areas blacken the sky as they leave the caves at dusk. However, the majority of tropical rainforest regions lack caves, so bat species must look elsewhere for cover. Many species choose the hollows of trees, while flying foxes sleep out in the open. However, some species have adapted interesting, if not bizarre, retreats. The tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders, while some bats of Central and South America construct shelters by cutting banana leaves into tent-like structures.
Because so many plant species, including kapok, eucalyptus, durian, mango, clove, banana, guava, avocado, breadfruit, ebony, mahogany, and cashew trees, depend exclusively on bats for pollination and seed dispersal, bats play a monumental role in the health of the rainforest. For example, bats are the dominant pollinators of forests on remote Pacific islands. Since many plant species on such islands co-evolved features to facilitate specific bat pollination, once bats are eliminated there are no other pollinators to fill the niche. Bats also play a crucial role in controlling insects. In several locations, municipal bat roosts have been proposed to stymie malaria-carrying mosquitos.
Bats are particularly subject to extermination by the destruction of their habitat. The reasons include their high concentrations in relatively few areas (especially in their caves), their specialized roles in filling feeding niches, and their relatively small number of young (since extra young add extra weight—a liability to flying). An infant bat weighs one-third of the mother's weight when it is born, essentially the same as a woman giving birth to a 40-pound (18 kg) baby (Bat Conservation International). In addition, bats can be highly sensitive to disturbances. For example, when there is a food shortage, bats may shut down their metabolism until more plentiful times. When a hibernating bat is disturbed, its body temperature spikes upward in preparation for escape, costing as much as a month of stored fat reserve. Baby bats are particularly sensitive to temperature and when disturbed, they frequently move to a slightly cooler area and die of exposure. More than 60 percent of bats do not survive infancy.
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0409.htm
All three species are native to the Rainforests of America, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.
Vampire bats very rarely bite people because they apparently dislike human blood. The three species of Bats are quite different from each other and are therefore placed within different genera (no other species are currently classified in any of the three genera concerned). But they are related.
Rainforest Bat Characteristics Vampire bats have burnt amber coloured fur on their backside while soft and velvety light brown fur that covers their belly. Vampire bats have a wingspan of about 8 inches and a body about the size of an adults thumb.
Unlike fruit-eating bats, the vampire bats have a short, conical muzzle without a nose leaf. Instead they have naked pads with U-shaped grooves at the tip. The common vampire bat also has specialised infrared sensors on its nose, by which it perceives temperature. A nucleus has been found in the brain of vampire bats that has a similar position and has similar histology to the infrared nucleus of infrared sensitive snakes.
Vampire bats have small ears and a short tail membrane. Their front teeth are specialised for cutting and their back teeth are much smaller than in other bats. Their digestive systems are also specialised for their liquid diet. The saliva of vampire bats contains the substance, 'draculin', which prevents the victims blood from clotting. Vampire bats therefore, lap blood rather than suck it as most people imagine.
Rainforest Bat Diet Vampire Bats only come out to feed when it is fully dark. Like fruit-eating bats and unlike insectivorous and fish-eating bats, they only emit low-energy sound pulses. The Common Vampire Bat feeds mostly on the blood of mammals, whereas the Hairy-legged Vampire Bat, and the White-winged Vampire Bat feed on the blood of birds.
Using their sharp teeth, the bats make tiny cuts in the skin of a sleeping animal. The bats' saliva contains a chemical that keeps the blood from clotting. The bats then lap up the blood that oozes from the wound. Another chemical in their saliva numbs the animal's skin and keeps them from waking up.
Vampire bats do not kill their prey. They only take about a teaspoon or two of blood at a feeding. Since bats rarely carry rabies, there is little chance their victims will die from that disease. However, it has been said that some do carry the disease and it is not the blood-sucking that kills the victim, but the transfer of the rabies. I guess it depends upon species and whether that species has contracted the disease.
When the bats have finished their meal, they are often so engorged with blood that they are too heavy to fly, so they have to retire in a place away from the victims to digest their meal before taking flight.
A vampire bat finds its prey with echolocation (use of ultra-high frequency sounds for navigation), smell, and sound. They fly about one metre above the ground. Then they use special heat sensors in their noses to find veins that are close to the skin.
Once the common vampire bat locates a host, usually a sleeping mammal, they land and approach it on the ground. A recent study found that common vampire bats can, in addition to walking, run at speeds of up to 1.2 metres per second. Vampire bats locate a suitable place to bite their victims using their infrared sensors.
The feeding pattern of the vampire bat adds a layer of complexity to its anatomy. Because they often do not find host organisms for many hours and may have to fly a long distance to do so, vampire bats usually feed in enormous quantities. This influx of proteins can however make the bat too heavy to fly. Vampire bats have so much stealth that they can drink for 30 minutes without awakening the animal. If vampire bats do not get blood for two days, they will eventually die, but that is less likely to happen. Female bats are generous and will give their blood to other bats who lack food.
Apparently, the bats urinary system accommodates this by releasing dilute urine consisting of a lot of water and fewer solutes. However, when the bat is resting, a new problem is faced. The large amounts of protein create excess urea and must be disposed of. The urinary system of the vampire bat then uses various hormones to make concentrated urine which consists of more urea and less water.
Rainforest Bat Habitats Vampire bats tend to live in almost completely dark places, such as caves, old wells, hollow trees and buildings. Colonies can range from a single individual to thousands. Vampire bats often roost with other species of bat.
Rainforest Bat Reproduction Common vampire bats will almost always have only one offspring per breeding season. Each colony will typically contain only one reproducing male, with around twenty females and their offspring. Vampire bats need blood at least once every few days to survive. If they cannot get blood, they will approach another vampire bat whilst roosting, asking for a blood 'transfusion'. The blood is exchanged mouth-to-mouth in a motion that looks very much like kissing. Their babies use tiny thumbs in the middle of the wing to cling on the mothers furry belly.
Rainforest Bat Lifespan Vampire bats can live up to 9 years in the wild and up to 19 in captivity.
Rainforest Bat Conservation Status Vampire bats are not an endangered species and have a conservation status of being 'Least Concern'.
Vampire Bat Myths
Myths and legends from all over the world portray bats as blood-sucking demons.
IT'S TRUE! Not really, here are some facts:
Bats are not blind. Most bats can see as well as humans. Fruit bats have eyesight that is adapted to low-light, much like cats. Fruit bats also see in color.
Vampires have not always been associated with bats, although both were considered mysterious and somewhat supernatural. Bram Stroker's "Dracula" was the first known connection. Stoker had seen a newspaper article on the bats and decided to include it in his book.
Bats are not flying mice. They are not even remotely related to rodents. Bats are such unique animals that scientists have placed them in a group all their own, called 'Chiroptera’, which means hand-wing. Bats are grouped with primates and lemurs in an order called Archonta.
Bats are shy, gentle, and intelligent and they are among the slowest reproducing animals on earth.
Vampire Bats are the only known mammals that exist entirely on a diet of blood. Their preferred prey are lareg birds, horses, cows and pigs.
Perhaps as a result of being so misunderstood, Vampire Bats and many other bat species are at risk of extinction.
Fears about vampire bats are fueled by a lot of misconceptions. A common one is that the bats bite the throats of their human victims. This is very far from the truth.
Happy Halloween!
http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/rainforests/vampbats_about.html
The most abundant mammals in the rainforest are not large ground-dwelling creatures, but bats. The tropics have the greatest variety of bats, and accordingly, the most diverse mammalian group of the tropical rainforest is bats, making up over 50 percent of mammal species. Bats range in size from the giant flying foxes, with wingspans of six feet (1.8 m), to the tiny bumblebee bat of Thailand, the world's smallest mammal, weighing less than an American penny. Equally diverse are the feeding habits of tropical bats, which include fruit, nectar, blood, and carnivorous feeders; and the places bats choose for shelter.
Although most bats of the world are insectivores, rainforests have a high percentage of fruit eaters. While insectivorous and other carnivorous bats rely on echolocation to find their prey, fruit-eating bats depend mostly on sight and a sophisticated sense of smell. True fruit-eating bats, the flying foxes of Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Australia, did not reach the New World, so their niche was filled by spear-nosed fruit bats which evolved from insect-eating bats. Today, countless canopy plant species depend on bats for pollination or seed dispersal, making bats the best mammalian dispersal agents.
Flying foxes are the fruit bats of the Old World and are limited to the tropics by their need for fruit year round. Visitors to areas frequented by flying foxes are likely to notice trees with hundreds and even thousands of pod-like forms that shriek incessantly. These are likely a colony of flying foxes. The individual flying fox's place in the tree is determined by its stature in the colony which is established by fighting. The most powerful males occupy the highest, safest areas, while the weaker bats occupy lower, more exposed branches. There are places in the well-developed pecking order for sentries, which are posted to warn the colony when danger approaches.
Nectar-feeding bats are important pollinators of tropical rainforest plants. Like fruit-eating bats, nectar-feeding bats rely on sight to locate their primary source of food: flower nectar. Thus flowers targeted by these nocturnal bats are night-blooming and are easily seen in relative darkness with large, white petals. Nectar-feeding bats are equipped with a long, thin tongue, like that of a hummingbird, to reach nectar deep inside the flower.
Vampire bats of the New World are well-known and quite often feared for their feeding on the blood of animals, even humans. Despite the stories of Dracula and Transylvania, vampire bats feed mostly on farm animals in tropical regions. In fact, man has inadvertently increased vampire bat populations by introduction of livestock, mostly cattle, into formerly forested lands. Vampires, which are only active in the darkest hours of the night in order to avoid predators, feed by using their chisel-like incisor teeth to make a small incision in the animal's skin. The bat drinks, not sucks, the blood which freely flows from the wound thanks to an anticoagulant, which incidentally, has been chemically isolated to create a drug for treating heart attack victims. Strangely, vampires prefer to land at a distance from their victim and approach by foot. Animals fed upon by vampires are rarely injured or killed by the feeding. Despite their cruel reputation, vampire bats have been known to adopt and feed orphaned bats.
Besides the best known insectivorous bats—each individual may eat over 3,000 insects a night—several bat species feed on vertebrate animals. One of the most notable bat groups are the fishing bats which have echolocation so sophisticated that they can detect minnows swimming at the water surface. Other bats feed on frogs and are able to distinguish poisonous species from edible species by listening to their calls. These bats associate the bad experience of eating one of these toxic frogs with their call.
Bats are best known for roosting in caves during the day when they are inactive. Where caves exist in the tropics, many bats do roost there and in some areas blacken the sky as they leave the caves at dusk. However, the majority of tropical rainforest regions lack caves, so bat species must look elsewhere for cover. Many species choose the hollows of trees, while flying foxes sleep out in the open. However, some species have adapted interesting, if not bizarre, retreats. The tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders, while some bats of Central and South America construct shelters by cutting banana leaves into tent-like structures.
Because so many plant species, including kapok, eucalyptus, durian, mango, clove, banana, guava, avocado, breadfruit, ebony, mahogany, and cashew trees, depend exclusively on bats for pollination and seed dispersal, bats play a monumental role in the health of the rainforest. For example, bats are the dominant pollinators of forests on remote Pacific islands. Since many plant species on such islands co-evolved features to facilitate specific bat pollination, once bats are eliminated there are no other pollinators to fill the niche. Bats also play a crucial role in controlling insects. In several locations, municipal bat roosts have been proposed to stymie malaria-carrying mosquitos.
Bats are particularly subject to extermination by the destruction of their habitat. The reasons include their high concentrations in relatively few areas (especially in their caves), their specialized roles in filling feeding niches, and their relatively small number of young (since extra young add extra weight—a liability to flying). An infant bat weighs one-third of the mother's weight when it is born, essentially the same as a woman giving birth to a 40-pound (18 kg) baby (Bat Conservation International). In addition, bats can be highly sensitive to disturbances. For example, when there is a food shortage, bats may shut down their metabolism until more plentiful times. When a hibernating bat is disturbed, its body temperature spikes upward in preparation for escape, costing as much as a month of stored fat reserve. Baby bats are particularly sensitive to temperature and when disturbed, they frequently move to a slightly cooler area and die of exposure. More than 60 percent of bats do not survive infancy.
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0409.htm