Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! In an earlier post I wrote about how Vampire bats have best friends that they help out. Recently scientists have found out that there is a bit more to the…
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I am looking forward to a nice three-day weekend. I plan on sleeping late each of those three days. And I am very happy about it. I found out that today is “World Dracula Day”. World Dracula Day celebrates the anniversary of the first publication of Bram Stoker’s book Dracula. The book was first published 121 years ago. In honor of World Dracula Day, I thought we should learn about vampire bats. Even before Europeans came to the Americas, they had stories about vampires. The early vampires were monsters, but not really bats. The association with bats came with Stoker’s book. After the publication of the book, these cute little bats got their name. The book didn’t really help their reputation, so in an attempt to improve their image, let’s learn the truth about these little critters. First, there are three kinds of vampire bats. They all live in Central and South America, not Transylvania. And all they eat is blood. They don’t eat any other food or even drink water. Because of their diet, vampire bat guano has a very strong smell. This makes it easy to find their roosts. Vampire bats don’t really want to drink human blood. They usually feed off livestock animals and birds. Since these bats are small, they only consume about a tablespoon of blood. That means that the animal they use for their meal might not even realize they have been bitten. One interesting characteristic of vampire bats is that their nose is able to sense heat, which helps them find blood vessels. Another interesting characteristic is that vampire bats can run. Their ancestors lost the ability to run when they developed the ability to fly. But these bats re-evolved to be able […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I thought we should all take this time to learn another interesting Vampire Bat fact. I know that a lot of people are scared of vampire bats. I just want you all to know that these bats are actually very friendly and sweet with each other. Sure, they have a rather strange diet, but that is just our opinion. They probably think our diet is weird. That doesn’t make them scary. So, in an effort to show everyone just how wonderful all bats are, including the poor misunderstood vampire bat, here is this week’s interesting bat fact: Vampire bats share blood! As you all know, they drink blood. What I didn’t know is that if one of their roost-mates is hungry, a vampire bat will share blood with it! A scientist at the University of Maryland has been studying vampire bats for many years. He says that the bats will share regurgitated blood with their roost-mates. Apparently, a vampire bat will approach a friend who is hungry and offer it food. The scientists have noticed that bats who share the most blood will be offered the most if they are hungry later. The scientist says that it is evidence that bats are generous and their behavior might ensure that they will get fed if they are hungry one time. If you want to read the article that I read, you can find it here. So, I think we should all learn […]