Vampire Bats |
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Vampire Bats have been thought of as evil animals that live to suck the blood of others. On the contrary, bats are gentle creatures that make sure that the animals they feed on feel no pain. On this website, you can find out more about vampire bats. |
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| Currently, there are 3 species of vampire bats: The Desmodus Retundus, the Diaemus Youngi , and last but not least, the Diphylla Ecaudata The Desmodus Retundus is the most common type of vampire bats. The Diaemus Youngi and the Diphylla Ecaudata, on the other hand, are very rare. The reason for these two species to be endangered is the mass use of pesticide by farmers. Also, ranchers used poison to make sure that their cattle didn't get rabies from the vampire bats. These practices are now outlawed. |
 
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Vampire bats live in dense forests or mountainous regions in South and Central America. They suck on the blood of sleeping animals. The saliva of the vampire bat is the best known anti-coagulant agent (prevents blood clotting). But blood is not the sole constituent of the vampire bat's diet. It also eats spiders and moths, and sometimes even birds. |
 
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| Diphylla Ecaudata and Diaemus Youngi solely depend of birds. If the birds were to cease existing, these vampire bats would die out.A shelter is very important to a bat. A whole scociety of bats have been known to live under one shelter.The shelter may range from a hollow tree trunk to a cellar. |
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Bats rely on a sophisticated form of sonar known as echolocation. This lets them fly through the pitch of night without crashing into obstacles. It was long thought that since bats relied so much on echolocation, they had no use for their eyes. We now know that some species of bats can actually see very well. The amazing thing about bats are that they can run like spiders, jump like frogs, fly like birds, and even walk. A vampire bat has a specially formed thumb that allows it to take off as shown in the picture on the right.Bats fly so well that they can hunt, and even catch prey in mid-air. 
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| Bats are very shy creatures. When the are attacked, they will try to escape instead of fighting back. When they are extremely provoked, they will try to scratch their attacker. | Bats are thought to have evolved from the same ancestors as moles and shrews. Fossils show that bats existed as early as 50 million years ago! | ||||||||||||||
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As courtship behavior, the males sometimes regurgitate blood to a female. Also, a vampire bat regurgitates
blood to their mother.
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I am trying for this web site to be featured on 'Be The Creature' by the Kratt brothers. This show may help to bring the truth about vampire bats to light. | ||||||||||||||
