By Claire McCullough
Bats are a popular symbol associated with Halloween. Especially vampire bats are seen as scary due to people associating them with vampires. However, contrary to their name, vampire bats pose little threat to humans. A September 2017 article written and published by the Texas State Aquarium titled “Creatures of the Night: Fun Facts on Our Vampire Bats” stated that vampire bats typically feed off mammal farm animals, hence them targeting humans for food is very uncommon. What’s additionally uncommon is bats utilizing blood as a food source. There are only three identified species of vampire bats, and all three are contained within South America as an article published 2014 by Texas Tech University titled “Vampire Bats – The Good, the Bad, and the Amazing” states.
That same Texas Tech article mentions how vampire bats only need 20 grams, or 2 tablespoons, of blood a day because of their small bodyweight. The bats have unique developments to help them in the digestion of blood. According to the Texas Tech article, “Vampire bats have highly specialized heat-sensing ‘pit organs’ near their nose that allow the bats to detect variations in body temperature due to blood flow close to the surface of the skin”. The bats then pierce the animal’s skin with their sharp teeth. An article titled “Vampire Bat Sensors” written and published in 2011 by the California Academy of Sciences states that vampire bats teeth not having enamel gives them the sharpness needed to gently pierce through animal’s skin. According to the article “Vampire bats go with the flow” published in 2013 on PubMed Central by courtesy of the Nature Publishing Group, vampire bats possess the anticoagulant draculin, also known as DSPA, in their saliva. The draculin allows the wound to stay bleeding so the bats can get enough blood before the blood flow thickens.
Vampire bat’s biochemical systems have evolved to turn blood into energy they then use to function on. A University of Toronto Scarborough news article named “I want to eat your blood: study finds vampire bats burn nothing but blood protein to fuel their activity” published in 2024 and written by Don Campbell featured quotes from Ken Welch, a professor of biological sciences from the college. Campbell stated “In most animals, amino acids are a fuel of last resort… It’s what the body burns when there’s not much left, but these (vampire) bats burn it (amino acids found in blood) right away.”
Although vampire bats’ biochemical systems are impressive, they can only survive two to three days without a meal as mentioned by the Texas Tech article. An Arizona State University article published in 2018 titled “Metabolism and Temperature” states “Metabolism is the total of all the processes that are occurring within the cells of a body”. Vampire bats have a high metabolism, meaning they need to eat more. McPherson College Professor of Biology in the Natural Sciences department states: “Anytime you have a metabolism that requires you to eat more often, you are at a higher risk of starvation”. However, the socialization of vampire bat colonies may help prevent bats from starving. An article written by Gerald Carter and Lauren Leffer and published in the National Library of Medicine during 2015 called “Social Grooming in Bats: Are Vampire Bats Exceptional?” vampire bats spent 3.7% of their time awake participating in social grooming. Compared with other bat species, vampire bats engage in social grooming behavior an average of 14 times more. Social grooming promotes a community and relationships similar to friendships among colonies. According to Texas Tech, these companions prevent the bats from starving because vampire bats will sometimes vomit some of their food for other colony members who had unsuccessful hunts to prevent them from starving.
Vampire bats are more than their name suggests. These bats have proved to the scientific community that they are biologically and socially complex creatures. However, the bat’s reputation is still tainted in the general public’s eyes due to their association with vampires. Vampire bats are animals with nothing inherently malicious or inhumane about them, and they deserve to be seen just as that and not for just their name.
