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Vampire Bat Facts & Worksheets

Emerging from dark caves, mines, tree hollows, and abandoned buildings in Mexico and Central and South America, vampire bats are species under the subfamily Desmodontinae.

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Emerging from dark caves, mines, tree hollows, and abandoned buildings in Mexico and Central and South America, vampire bats are species under the subfamily Desmodontinae. Feeding on blood, these leaf-nosed bats die if they cannot find their food source two nights in a row.

See the fact file below for more information on the vampire bats or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Vampire Bat worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

TAXONOMY AND EVOLUTION

  • Three living species feed exclusively on blood: (1) the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), (2) the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata), and the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi). The differences among these three species categorized them in varying genus.
  • These three extant species all tend to resemble each other more compared to other bat species, suggesting that hematophagy, or the dietary trati of feeding on blood, only evolved once, and these three species have the same ancestor.
  • Vampire bats are part of a diverse family of bats that eat a number of food sources, including nectar, pollen, insects, fruit, and meat.
  • The three vampire bat species are the only mammals that have developed to feed solely on blood as micropredators, a mechanism within parasitism.
  • There are a number of theories as to how vampire bats have evolved: (1) they came from frugivorous bats with sharp teeth used for piercing fruit, (2) they originally preyed on the ectoparasites of large mammals and then advanced to feeding on the mammals themselves, (3) they initially ate insects that were attracted to the wounds of animals and then progressed to feeding on the wounds, (4) they originally attacked small arboreal vertebrates, (5) they were arboreal omnivores and started feeding on blood and flesh from wound sites of larger animals, and (6) they were specialized nectar-feeders that began to ingest another type of liquid.

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

  • Unlike fruit bats, vampire bats possess short and conical muzzles without the presence of a nose leaf. Instead, they have naked pads with U-shaped grooves found at the tip.
  • The most common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, has specifically designed thermoreceptors on its nose, helping it search areas where the blood flows near the skin of its prey.
  • A nucleus has also been discovered inside the brain of vampire bats that resembles the position and histology of infrared receptors of infrared-sensing snakes. The inferior colliculus, the membrane on the bat’s brain that is responsible for processing sound, is well-adapted to sensing the regular breathing sounds of sleeping animals that act as its primary source of food.
  • Its front teeth are used for cutting, while their back teeth are smaller compared to other bats.
  • While other bat species cannot wander on land, vampire bats have the ability to walk, jump, and run through the use of their distinct, bounding gait, in which the forelimbs are used for force production, since their wings are more powerful than their legs.
  • They also have a high level of protection against a number of bloodborne viruses called endogenous retroviruses, which inject copies of their DNA into their host’s genome.

ECOLOGY AND LIFE CYCLE

  • Vampire bats live in colonies found in almost fully dark places, such as caves, old wells, hollow trees, and buildings, in Central and South America. They prefer arid to humid tropical and subtropical areas. Their colony numbers can range from single digits to hundreds in breeding sites. The basic social structure of roosting bats is composed of female groups and their young, a few adult males called “resident males”, and an isolated faction of males called “nonresident males”.
  • Hairy-legged vampire bats have hierarchical segregation of nonresident males that tends to be less strict than common vampire bats.
  • Resident males copulate with the females in social groups called harems, and it is unusual for outside males to mate with the females. Female offspring often stay in their natal groups, while male babies remain in their natal groups for two years, sometimes being forcefully kicked out by the resident adult males.
  • Vampire bats create strong bonds with other members of their colony, and sharing their food is an example of this rare adaption. A vampire bat can only live for about two days without ingesting blood, yet they experience uncertainties of finding food every night. This might be a problem, so when a vampire bat fails to search for food, it will sometimes “beg” another bat for food. This “donor” bat may bring a small amount of swallowed blood back to its mouth to sustain the “begging” bat’s hunger. Donor bats also tend to approach starving bats and initiate the food sharing.
  • Another ability that vampire bats possess is distinguishing and monitoring the locations of individuals of the same species by making use of antiphonal calling.
  • They also engage in social grooming, which happens between females and their young, but it also plays an important part between adult females.

FEEDING

  • Vampire bats forage only when it is fully dark. Just like fruit-eating bats, and unlike those bats that feed on insects and fish, vampire bats release only low-energy sound pulses.
  • Common vampire bats prey primarily on the blood of mammals (and on humans in rare instances), while both the hairy-legged and white-winged vampire bats feed on the blood of birds.
  • Once the common vampire bat finds a host, such as a sleeping mammal, it meets it on the ground and uses thermoception to find a warm spot on the skin to bite, where they create a small incision with their teeth and lap up blood from the wound.
  • If the skin of the host is covered with fur, the common vampire bat uses its canine and cheek teeth to get rid of the hair. Its razor-sharp upper incisor teeth, which lack enamel, create a 7mm wide and 8mm deep cut.
  • The vampire bat’s saliva plays a role in feeding from the wound since it has several compounds that prolong the breeding, such as anticoagulants that prevent blood clotting.

HUMAN HEALTH

  • Although rare, infections of humans caused by vampire bats’ rabies from their bites have been documented. For instance, four children in Peru died in 2010 after being bitten by these bats. The highest occurrence of vampire bats can be witnessed in large populations in South America. However, the risk of infection in humans is less than livestock that are plagued with bat bites.
  • Studies show the unique features of the vampire bats’ saliva having some positive use in medicine. In 2003, a genetically engineered drug called desmoteplase used the anticoagulant properties of the common vampire bat’s saliva and showed an increase in blood flow in stroke patients.

Vampire Bat Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the vampire bat across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Vampire Bat worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the vampire bats which are species under the subfamily Desmodontinae. Feeding on blood, these leaf-nosed bats die if they cannot find their food source two nights in a row.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Vampire Bat Facts
  • Boo Hoo
  • Vampire Bat Anatomy
  • A Bat’s Life
  • Two Bats
  • Three Species
  • Vampire Bat Wiki
  • My Hiding Place
  • Facts in a Jar
  • More Bloody Facts
  • Vampire and Bat

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Link will appear as Vampire Bat Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, December 11, 2020

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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