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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.