Common Vampire Bat

Fascinating facts about the Common Vampire Bat

• The common vampire bat can run on the ground using a distinctive bounding gait in which the wings act as fore-limbs rather than the hind-limbs. Its powerful wing muscles push the body forward while the three pads under each thumb act like soles, and the hind-limbs keep the torso over the pectoral limbs. This ability also lets the bat leap in many directions, heights and distances, a trait most other bats have lost.
• The bat's echolocation can detect a metal strip only one centimetre wide from half a metre away. It emits its calls orally and therefore flies with its mouth open, while its good eyesight lets it distinguish different optical patterns for long-range orientation, and its cochlea is highly sensitive to low-frequency sounds.
• The common vampire bat is the only living member of the genus Desmodus, a status confirmed after several earlier names were consolidated under Desmodus rotundus by Oldfield Thomas in 1901. Although fossil species such as Desmodus puntajudensi have been described, no other modern bat shares this genus, while its two close relatives belong to different genera within the same subfamily. This makes the species taxonomically unique among the true vampire bats.
• Its saliva contains the anticoagulant Draculin, which stops blood from clotting while it feeds. This protein prevents the wound from sealing, allowing the bat to lap up a continuous stream of blood. Scientists have copied the compound to create the drug desmoteplase, which exploits the same clot-preventing action. Clinical trials have shown desmoteplase can boost blood flow in patients who have suffered a stroke.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Common Vampire Bat

In the dark, velvety night, the common vampire bat emerges, its leathery wings beating with a soft, eerie rhythm as it takes to the skies, a creature of unholy legend, driven by an unrelenting thirst for the lifeblood of its warm-blooded prey. With an uncanny ability to navigate the blackest shadows, it flits and weaves through the trees, its high-frequency calls echoing through the darkness like a chilling whisper, as it zeroes in on the unsuspecting creature that will satiate its hunger. As it alights upon its victim, the vampire bat's razor-sharp teeth glint in the faint moonlight, a fleeting glimpse of the deadly precision that has earned this remarkable creature its macabre reputation.

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