Vampire teeth by unquenchable.fire, on Flickr
We come at last to the Vampire Bat. As it turns out, there are three different species of vampire bat; one that preys on mammals and two that prey on birds. And they do drink blood. They hunt by landing somewhere close to their prey animal then find a warm spot so that there’ll be a vein close to the surface. Then they break the skin and start lapping up the blood, the chemicals in their saliva keeping the blood going.
Possibly the most interesting thing about vampire bats however is their sociability. While all bats at some point or other spend time in communities, vampire bats live in communities all the time. Unlike other bats, vampire bats share their meals with others in their community, regurgitating the blood up just like birds, except they do it with other adult bats too. Vampire bats also adopt orphaned young, which is pretty rare in the animal kingdom as a rule. So it turns out, if you ignore that whole drinking blood thing, vampire bats are actually a little warm and fuzzy.
Feeding time! (DSC_7577) by ucumari, on Flickr
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