They feed on the blood of other animals thanks to their Dracula-like teeth. Vampire bats, if they weren’t already disconcerting enough by being the only mammal to practice hematophagy (that is, to feed exclusively on blood), will now freeze yours: they know, in addition to flying, running. Published in the journal Biology Letters, a new study reveals how animals manage to assimilate the energy provided by ingested blood more quickly than previously thought.
Due to their diet low in fat and carbohydrates, vampire bats require significant energy to continue hunting. While they weigh nearly 40 grams, they attack much larger animals, such as baby penguins weighing around twenty kilos. But unlike most bats, which generally avoid the ground, this subspecies is capable of running. It propels itself forward with its wings folded, which helps it stalk its prey stealthily.
“They don’t want to arrive on the back of a cow like that,” explains Kenneth Welch, a biologist at the University of Toronto, co-author of the study and who studies animals with specific diets. “Instead, they land a few meters from the cow, silently run up to her leg and make a small, painless incision without her noticing.”
30 meters per minute
In the study, Kenneth Welch and his colleague Giulia Rossi first fed twenty-four Belizean vampire bats with bovine blood. After seeking to understand how the animal digests its meals, the scientists placed the specimens on a miniature treadmill. As the speed of the treadmill gradually increased, the vampire bats first walked, then…
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