# Vampire Bat (*Desmodus rotundus*) Vampire bats are unique mammals that drink blood from other animals. They have sharp teeth and wings that help them fly silently in the night. - **Category:** [Mammals](https://www.snappit.app/explore/categories/mammal) - **Rarity:** Common - **Danger:** 2/5 · Low - **Habitat:** Caves - **Also known as:** Common Vampire Bat ![Vampire Bat](https://media.snappit.app/site-media-v1/52fb5a9e7659637f2579024be450324f9b94680fdfdb29cc95f216bc8b10e6c2/image-560x560/w-560.webp) ## Appearance The Vampire Bat has a small, stocky body covered in reddish-brown fur, a short, conical nose, and large, pointy ears. Its distinctive features are its sharp, blade-like incisors and grooves on its lower lip. ## Taxonomy - **Kingdom:** Animalia - **Phylum:** Chordata - **Class:** Mammalia - **Order:** Chiroptera - **Family:** Phyllostomidae - **Genus:** Desmodus ## Common vampire bat, up close The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) lives from Mexico to Argentina and Chile. It weighs 15–50 g and feeds only on blood, mostly from livestock such as cattle. It finds warm skin with heat-sensing pits around its nose, makes a tiny cut with its razor-sharp teeth and laps up the blood. Unlike almost every other bat, it can walk, run and jump on the ground. Roost-mates share blood meals with bats that went hungry, and the species is a major carrier of rabies to livestock in Latin America. Also called: Vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus. A heat-sensing nose, razor teeth, a meal of blood that weighs half as much as the bat, and friends who share it. Spin it, tap it, then test yourself. ### Special abilities - **Heat-Seeking Nose** (≈30 °C where its heat sensor switches on): Pits around the nose sense the warmth coming off skin, so the bat can find a spot where blood runs close to the surface. [2][3] - The sensor is a protein called TRPV1. Its normal version warns of painful heat and switches on at about 40 °C. - In 2011, Elena Gracheva, David Julius and colleagues showed that the nerves of a vampire bat’s face make a shortened version of TRPV1 that switches on at about 30 °C. - The rest of its body keeps the normal version, so the bat still feels painful heat. - Snakes that sense heat, such as pit vipers, use a different protein, TRPA1. Bats and snakes found two separate ways to do the same job. - When does the heat sensor switch on?: Vampire bat’s short TRPV1 (face) ≈30 °C; Normal long TRPV1 ≈40 °C - **Razor Bite** (≈3 mm cut): With its razor-sharp front teeth the bat shaves away a tiny patch of skin, so blood can well up, usually without waking the animal. [2][1][22] - Before biting, it finds a warm spot using the heat pits on its nose. - The central upper incisors remove a small piece of skin, leaving a cut about 3 mm long. - The bite is described as nearly painless and rarely wakes a sleeping animal. - The cut is tiny, but bitten cattle can suffer from blood loss, lower milk yields and infected wounds. - **Lap, Don’t Suck** (≈20 g of blood a night: two tablespoons): The bat laps the blood with its grooved tongue while chemicals in its saliva stop the wound from clotting. [16][1][15][5] - A vampire bat needs about two tablespoons of blood (about 20 g) each night. - Two grooves on the sides of its tongue widen and narrow as it laps. - Its saliva contains draculin, a protein that blocks two of the blood’s clotting helpers (factors IXa and Xa). - For a cow, about 14,000 times heavier than the bat, two tablespoons is a very small amount. - **Big Gulp, Fast Pee** (59.5% of its weight in one meal (captive bats)): A meal can weigh more than half as much as the bat, so it gets rid of the water in the blood straight away to stay light enough to fly. [14][1] - Captive vampire bats drank an average of 59.5% of their body weight in blood, in 30 minutes or less. - Their kidneys start making lots of watery pee while they are still feeding. The flow peaks 20–25 minutes after the meal. - Later, the pee becomes very concentrated, carrying away the waste from all that protein. - After a big meal, the vampire bat can still jump almost straight up into flight. - One meal compared with the bat: Average meal 59.5%; The bat itself 100% - **Ground Runner** (≈4 km/h running speed on a treadmill): Most bats are clumsy on the ground, but the vampire bat runs with a bounding gallop powered by its folded wings. [4][5][1] - In 2005, Daniel Riskin and John Hermanson put vampire bats on a treadmill. They broke into a run at up to about 4 km/h. - Its wings are much stronger than its legs, so the front limbs do the pushing. Most running animals push with their back legs. - Bats lost the ability to run long ago, so vampire bats must have evolved it again on their own. - Running and hopping help it creep up on a sleeping animal and get away from a kick. - **Launch Jump** (9.5× its weight, pushed in about 0.03 s): To take off from the ground the bat does a push-up with its wings and springs almost straight up into the air. [6][1] - High-speed films show the wings do the pushing, while the hind legs steady and aim the body. - The push reaches up to 9.5 times the bat’s body weight in about 30 thousandths of a second. - The bat leaves the ground at about 2.4 m/s, fast enough to open its wings and fly. - Scientists who measured these jumps describe this vertical take-off as unique among bats. - **Blood Sharing** (8.5× past help beats family ties): A bat that fed well will cough up some blood for a roost-mate that went hungry, and bats that help others get help back. [7][8][9][10][11] - In 1984 Gerald Wilkinson showed that wild vampire bats share blood depending both on how related they are and on how much chance they have to pay each other back. - Gerald Carter and Wilkinson fasted 20 captive bats over two years. How much food a bat had received from a partner predicted how much it gave back 8.5 times better than how related they were. - Females that had fed more unrelated bats had more donors, and got more food when their usual partner was taken away. - New friendships start with grooming. Strangers groomed each other more and more before they began to share food. - What predicted who gave food?: Food received before 8.5×; Being related 1× - **Living on the Edge** (≈2 days without blood before it starts to starve): A small bat burns energy fast and can only store so much, so missing even two nights of food can be deadly. [13][16][8] - A vampire bat can begin to starve after just two days without a meal. - Bats that fail to feed often get blood from roost-mates, which can keep them alive until the next night. - This is why sharing matters so much: tonight’s lucky bat may be tomorrow’s hungry one. - Females do most of the sharing: about 80% of it, according to earlier research. - **Roost Together** (20–100 bats in a usual colony): By day vampire bats crowd together in dark caves, hollow trees, wells, mines and old buildings. [1][27][12] - Colonies usually hold 20–100 bats, but up to 5,000 have been reported. - Roosts smell strongly of ammonia from the digested blood. - Many roosts are now human-made. In a study in São Paulo state, Brazil, 86% of the roosts mapped were in abandoned houses, manholes and other buildings. - Bat friendships last: females that groomed and fed each other in captivity kept hanging out together after they were released. ### Body parts - **Heat-sensing nose pits** (3 heat-sensing pits around the nose) [2][3] - Three small pits surround the vampire bat’s fleshy nose pad. Nerves in them react to warmth above about 29 °C. - That lets the bat feel the heat coming off warm skin, where blood flows close to the surface. - Among animals with backbones, only vampire bats, boas, pythons and pit vipers are known to sense heat rays (infrared) like this. - **Razor-sharp front teeth** (≈3 mm cut in the skin) [1][22] - The upper front teeth (incisors) and the canines are razor-sharp. - The big central incisors slice away a tiny patch of skin, making a cut about 3 mm long. - The bite is described as nearly painless, and it rarely wakes a sleeping animal. - **Grooved tongue** (2 grooves along the sides of the tongue) [1][15] - The bat does not suck. It laps up the blood with its tongue. - Two grooves along the sides of the tongue widen and narrow as it feeds, helping move the blood. - Its saliva contains draculin, a protein that stops the blood from clotting, so the little wound keeps flowing. - **Large eyes** (Not blind large eyes for a bat) [1] - The common vampire bat has large eyes and a keen sense of smell. - It uses both echolocation (calls and their echoes) and vision to find its way and to find animals to feed on. - Smell and sounds may help it pick out the right animal. - **Long thumbs** (Long thumb, with soft pads) [1][6] - Its thumbs are long and well developed. - On the ground, the thumbs help carry the bat’s weight, like the toes of a front foot. - During a jump, the thumbs steady the arm and let it push against the ground for longer. - **Wings as front legs** (9.5× its body weight, pushed in one jump) [4][6] - On the ground the bat folds its wings and walks on its wrists and thumbs. - Its wings are far stronger than its legs, so the front limbs do most of the pushing when it runs. - In a take-off jump the wings push down with up to 9.5 times the bat’s weight in about 30 thousandths of a second. - **Strong hind legs** (Hops forwards, backwards and sideways) [1][6] - Strong hind legs and the long thumbs hold the bat up on the ground. - In a jump, the hind legs steady the body and aim it over the front limbs, which do the pushing. - The bat can hop forwards, backwards and sideways to dodge a kicking hoof or a swishing tail. - **No tail** (0 cm of tail) [1] - The common vampire bat has no tail. - The skin between its hind legs, which many bats use as a net, is just a narrow fringe. - **Stretchy belly** (59.5% of its weight in one meal (captive bats)) [14][1] - In a study of captive bats, a meal weighed on average 59.5% of the bat’s own body weight, drunk in 30 minutes or less. - Blood is mostly water. The bat starts peeing out water while it is still feeding, so it is light enough to fly home. - An adult weighs 15–50 g. ### Stats | Stat | Value | Notes | |---|---|---| | Weight | 15–50 g | head and body 7–9 cm; females usually bigger [1] | | One meal | 59.5% | of its body weight, on average, drunk in 30 minutes or less (captive bats) [14] | | Blood a night | ≈20 g | about two tablespoons [16] | | Without food | ≈2 days | before it can begin to starve [13][16] | | Heat sensor | ≈30 °C | the shortened TRPV1 in its face switches on here; the normal version needs about 40 °C [2] | | Running speed | ≈4 km/h | on a treadmill, galloping on its wings [5][4] | | Take-off push | 9.5× | its body weight, in about 30 milliseconds; leaves the ground at about 2.4 m/s [6] | | Colony size | 20–100 | bats; up to 5,000 reported [1] | | Young | 1 | pup after a pregnancy of about 7 months; newborns weigh 5–7 g [1][18] | | Oldest known | 29 years | in captivity (29.2 years); up to about 12 years in the wild [18][1] | ### Photos - [Up on its wrists and feet in a roost in Brazil, showing its sharp front teeth](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_vampire_bat_(Desmodus_rotundus)_Rio_Negro.jpg) (photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [Walking position: the folded wings and long thumbs work as front legs](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmo-boden.jpg) (photo: Uwe Schmidt, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [In flight: the same wings it walks on spread out into a hand-wing](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmo-Flug-01.jpg) (photo: Uwe Schmidt, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [The bare nose pad: the heat-sensing pits sit in the folds around it](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmodus_rotundus_91479551.jpg) (photo: Carlos Funes, CC BY 4.0) - [A young male caught near Lamanai, Belize: note the big upper front teeth](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_vampire_bat%2C_Desmodus_rotundus.jpg) (photo: Gerry Carter, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [A mother and her young: pups stay close to their mothers for months](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmodus-mutter%2BJungtier.jpg) (photo: Uwe Schmidt, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [Caught on video: one bat passes a blood meal to a roost-mate](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regurgitated_food_sharing_in_common_vampire_bats%2C_Desmodus_rotundus.jpg) (photo: Gerry Carter, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [Two vampire bats hanging in a cave roost in Yucatán, Mexico](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmodus_rotundus_-_Justin_Philbois_-_579602934.jpeg) (photo: Justin Philbois, CC0) - [A common vampire bat roosting under the roof of a rural house](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vampiro_en_casa.jpg) (photo: NathDragon, CC BY-SA 4.0) - [Danger in the roost: a rainbow boa eating a vampire bat in a cave in Ecuador](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rainbow_Boa_(Epicrates_cenchria)_feeding_on_Common_Vampire_Bat_(Desmodus_rotundus)_(cropped).jpg) (photo: Sarah Martin-Solano, Theofilos Toulkeridis, Aaron Addison, Wilmer E. Pozo-Rivera, CC BY 4.0) ### Questions - **What does a vampire bat eat?** Only blood. The common vampire bat prefers livestock such as cattle, but also feeds on wild animals and sometimes on people. It needs about two tablespoons (about 20 g) of blood a night. [1][16] - **Do vampire bats suck blood?** No. A vampire bat makes a tiny cut with its razor-sharp front teeth and laps up the blood with its grooved tongue. A protein in its saliva, draculin, stops the blood from clotting. [1][15] - **Do vampire bats bite humans?** Sometimes, especially where people sleep in open houses near bat roosts. Bites on livestock are far more common. Because vampire bats can carry rabies, anyone bitten or scratched by a bat should see a doctor straight away. [1][22] - **How do vampire bats find blood?** They use sight, smell, hearing and echolocation to find an animal, then heat-sensing pits around the nose to find a warm spot where blood flows close under the skin. [1][2] - **Do vampire bats really share food?** Yes. A bat that fed well will bring up some blood for a roost-mate that went hungry. Bats share with relatives and with unrelated friends, and a bat that has helped others in the past gets more help when it needs it. [7][8][9] - **Can vampire bats walk?** Yes. Unlike most bats, the common vampire bat walks, hops and runs on all fours, using its folded wings and long thumbs as front legs. It can also jump almost straight up into flight. [1][4][6] - **Are there vampire bats in the United States?** The common vampire bat has been found within about 50 km of Texas, but not in recent times in the US. The hairy-legged vampire bat’s range is listed as reaching southern Texas. [25][20] - **Is the vampire bat endangered?** No. The common vampire bat is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, and its numbers have grown where livestock were introduced. [21][1] ### Vampire bat myths and facts Tap Myth or Fact for each claim, then check the answer. - "Vampire bats suck blood." **Myth!** They make a tiny cut and lap up the blood with their grooved tongue, a bit like a cat drinking milk. [1] - "Vampire bats live in Transylvania." **Myth!** All three vampire bat species live in the Americas. The common vampire bat lives from Mexico to Argentina and Chile. [1][19][20] - "A vampire bat bite always wakes its victim." **Myth!** The bite is described as nearly painless and rarely wakes a sleeping animal. [1] - "Vampire bats can sense heat." **Fact!** Pits around the nose contain nerves with a heat sensor that switches on at about 30 °C, so the bat can feel warm skin. [2] - "Bats can’t walk on the ground." **Myth!** The common vampire bat walks, hops and even runs, using its folded wings as front legs. [1][4] - "Vampire bats only share food with their family." **Myth!** In one study, 64% of the pairs of bats that shared food were not related. Past help mattered more than family. [8] - "A vampire bat can drink more than half its weight in one meal." **Fact!** Captive vampire bats drank an average of 59.5% of their body weight in blood in 30 minutes or less. [14] - "Killing vampire bats stops rabies." **Not proven!** In Peru, a two-year cull lowered bat numbers but did not cut rabies cases in livestock. Culling after rabies arrived even seemed to help the virus spread faster. [23] ### A life in a vampire bat colony Vampire bats grow up slowly and can live a long time for such a small mammal. - **Before birth**: A long pregnancy. A pregnancy lasts about 7 months, very long for a small mammal. Most females have one pregnancy a year. [1][18] - **Birth**: One pup. Usually a single pup is born, sometimes twins. A newborn weighs 5–7 g. [1] - **First month**: Milk only. For its first month the pup drinks only its mother’s milk, and doubles its weight. [1] - **Second month**: First taste of blood. The mother starts feeding the pup blood she brings back up from her own meal. [1] - **About 4 months**: Hunting with mum. The young bat goes out on night-time hunts with its mother. [1] - **About 9 months**: Grown up. Males and females are mature at about 285 days old. Adults groom roost-mates and share blood meals with them. [1][8] - **Up to 12+ years**: A long life. Wild vampire bats may live about 12 years. One in captivity reached 29.2 years. [1][18] ### Vampire bats, rabies and cattle The common vampire bat carries rabies to livestock and sometimes people. Scientists are testing smarter ways to stop it than killing bats. - **23** people died in one outbreak. In 2011, 21 school-age children and 2 adults in and around one village in Peru died of rabies passed on by common vampire bats. [22] - **6×** more benefit than cost. In Mexico, vaccinating livestock against rabies was worth more than six times what it cost. Killing bats was very unlikely to pay off. [26] - **2.6×** more bats protected. Tests with a harmless glowing marker in Peruvian colonies suggest a vaccine gel that bats spread to each other could protect up to 2.6 times more bats than the same effort with a normal vaccine. [24] - **86%** roosts in human-made places. In São Paulo state, Brazil, where cattle caught rabies, 86% of the vampire bat roosts mapped were in abandoned houses, manholes and other human-made places. [27] - **≈50 km** from the US border. Vampire bats have been found within about 50 km of Texas. Models suggest suitable places may exist in far southern Texas and southern Florida. [25] Never touch a bat. Anyone bitten or scratched by a bat should see a doctor straight away. ### Common vs white-winged vs hairy-legged vampire bat These are the only three bats that live on blood. All three are found in the Americas. | | Common vampire bat | White-winged vampire bat | Hairy-legged vampire bat | |---|---|---|---| | Weight [1][19][20] | 15–50 g | 30–45 g | 30–40 g | | Main food [1][19][20] | Blood of mammals, especially livestock | Blood of birds | Blood of birds | | Look [1][19][20] | Greyish-brown, paler below; long thumbs | Cinnamon-brown; white wing edges; short thumb | Reddish to sooty brown; small ears, short nose, hairy legs | | Teeth [19][20] | 20 | 22 | 26 | | Range [1][19][20] | Mexico to Argentina and Chile | Mexico and Central America to tropical South America | Southern Texas to eastern Peru and southern Brazil | All three are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. ### Is the common vampire bat endangered? No. It is common, and cattle ranching has given it more food than ever. The bigger problem is how people try to control it. - **IUCN Red List:** Least Concern (LC). Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Populations have grown where livestock were brought in, because cattle and horses are an easy, plentiful food. [21][1] - IUCN Red List: Least Concern (Red List version 2022.2) - **Threat: Poison and roost destruction**: Vampire bats are still culled with poison in Latin America. Fear of vampire bats can also lead people to wreck bat roosts, harming other bat species that need protection. [22][25] - **Helping: Vaccinate the cattle** (6×): In Mexico, vaccinating livestock paid back more than six times its cost. [26] - **Helping: Vaccines that spread by grooming**: Scientists are testing vaccines that bats would spread to each other by touch. Models predict they would work better than culling. [24] - **Helping: Rethinking culls**: A study in Peru found that culling did not reduce rabies in livestock, and reactive culls may have sped up the virus’s spread. [23] - **White-winged vampire bat** (LC): Least Concern, but its numbers are poorly known. [19] - **Hairy-legged vampire bat** (LC): Least Concern; the rarest of the three vampire bats. [20] ### The three vampire bats - **Common vampire bat**: Greyish-brown fur, paler below, long thumbs and no tail. 15–50 g. Feeds mostly on mammals, especially livestock. (IUCN: Least Concern) [1][21] - **White-winged vampire bat (relative)**: Shiny clay to cinnamon-brown fur. The wing edges are white, and so is most of the skin between the second and third fingers. A short thumb. 30–45 g. Feeds mainly on birds, including chickens. (IUCN: Least Concern) [19] - **Hairy-legged vampire bat (relative)**: Reddish to sooty brown with small ears, a short “pug” nose and hairy legs. 30–40 g. Feeds mainly on birds, including chickens. (IUCN: Least Concern. The rarest of the three.) [20] ### Vampire bat quiz 1. How does a vampire bat drink blood? **It laps it up with its tongue.** It makes a tiny cut and laps the blood with its grooved tongue. [1] 2. What do the pits around a vampire bat’s nose sense? **Heat.** They sense heat, helping the bat find warm skin where blood runs close to the surface. [2] 3. At about what temperature does the vampire bat’s face heat sensor switch on? **About 30 °C.** Its shortened TRPV1 switches on at about 30 °C, compared with about 40 °C for the normal version. [2] 4. What does draculin in vampire bat saliva do? **Stops blood from clotting.** Draculin blocks clotting, so the little wound keeps flowing while the bat laps. [15][1] 5. How much can a captive vampire bat drink in one meal, compared with its own weight? **About 60%.** On average 59.5% of its body weight, in 30 minutes or less. [14] 6. Why does a vampire bat start peeing while it is still feeding? **To get rid of water so it is light enough to fly.** Blood is mostly water. Getting rid of it quickly keeps the bat light. [14] 7. What powers a vampire bat when it runs? **Its folded wings.** Its wings are much stronger than its legs, so the front limbs do the pushing. [4] 8. How fast did vampire bats run on a treadmill? **Up to about 4 km/h.** About 4 km/h (2.5 miles an hour), in a bounding gallop. [5] 9. In Carter and Wilkinson’s study, what best predicted whether a bat gave food to a partner? **Whether the partner had fed it before.** Food received before was 8.5 times more important than being related. [8] 10. About how long can a vampire bat go without blood before it starts to starve? **Two days.** It can begin to starve after about two days, which is why shared meals matter. [13][16] 11. Where do common vampire bats live in the wild? **Mexico, Central and South America.** From Mexico to Argentina and Chile. All three vampire bats live in the Americas. [1] 12. Which method of preventing vampire bat rabies in Mexico paid off best? **Vaccinating livestock.** Vaccinating livestock was worth more than six times its cost; bat control was very unlikely to pay off. [26] ### Sources (checked 2026-10-30) 1. [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Desmodus rotundus (common vampire bat).](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Desmodus_rotundus/) 2. [Gracheva EO, Cordero-Morales JF, González-Carcacía JA, Ingolia NT, Manno C, Aranguren CI, Weissman JS, Julius D (2011). Ganglion-specific splicing of TRPV1 underlies infrared sensation in vampire bats. Nature 476:88–91.](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10245) 3. [EurekAlert! (2011). News release from the University of California, San Francisco on Gracheva et al.: what steers vampire bats to blood.](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/712561) 4. [Riskin DK, Hermanson JW (2005). Biomechanics: independent evolution of running in vampire bats. 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Diphylla ecaudata (hairy-legged vampire bat).](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Diphylla_ecaudata/) 21. [Wikidata / IUCN Red List. Common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus (Q300981): Least Concern (IUCN ID 6510), referenced to Red List version 2022.2.](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q300981) 22. [Stoner-Duncan B, Streicker DG, Tedeschi CM (2014). Vampire bats and rabies: toward an ecological solution to a public health problem. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 8(6):e2867.](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002867) 23. [Viana M, Benavides JA, Broos A, et al., Streicker DG (2023). Effects of culling vampire bats on the spatial spread and spillover of rabies virus. Science Advances 9(10):eadd7437.](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add7437) 24. [Bakker KM, Rocke TE, Osorio JE, et al., Streicker DG (2019). Fluorescent biomarkers demonstrate prospects for spreadable vaccines to control disease transmission in wild bats. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3(12):1697–1704.](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1032-x) 25. [Hayes MA, Piaggio AJ (2018). Assessing the potential impacts of a changing climate on the distribution of a rabies virus vector. PLoS ONE 13(2):e0192887.](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192887) 26. [Anderson A, Shwiff S, Gebhardt K, et al., Lecuona L (2014). Economic evaluation of vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) rabies prevention in Mexico. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases 61(2):140–146.](https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.12007) 27. [Mantovan KB, Menozzi BD, Paiz LM, Sevá AP, Brandão PE, Langoni H (2022). Geographic distribution of common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus shelters: implications for the spread of rabies virus to cattle in southeastern Brazil. Pathogens 11(8):942.](https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11080942) ## Measurements & details - **Length:** 7-9 cm - **Wingspan:** 28-35 cm - **Weight:** 0.015-0.05 kg - **Lifespan:** 5-9 years - **Speed:** 30 km/h - **Litter Size:** 1 - **Gestation:** 180-210 days ## Diet & Feeding Vampire bats are unique mammals that exclusively drink blood from sleeping animals, a diet called sanguinivory. - **Primary Foods:** Cattle blood, Horse blood, Bird blood, Wild mammal blood - **Foraging Method:** Foraging ## Ecological connections - **Hunts:** [Cattle](https://www.snappit.app/explore/cattle) (*Bos taurus*) — feeds on their blood at night. - **Hunts:** [Horse](https://www.snappit.app/explore/horse) (*Equus caballus*) — drinks blood from sleeping horses. - **Hunts:** [Domestic Dog](https://www.snappit.app/explore/domestic-dog) (*Canis familiaris*) — occasionally feeds on domestic dogs. ## Traits - [Furry](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/furry): Furry describes animals possessing a dense covering of soft hair or fur. - [Social](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/social): Social animals live in organized groups, cooperating for survival benefits such as foraging, defense, and raising offspring. - [Cave Dwelling](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/cave-dwelling): Cave dwelling describes organisms specifically adapted to live in underground cave systems, often exhibiting specialized traits due to lack of light. - [Carnivorous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/carnivorous): This trait identifies organisms whose diet consists entirely or primarily of animal tissue. - [Regenerative](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/regenerative): Regenerative organisms possess the ability to regrow lost or damaged body parts, tissues, or organs. - [Vampiric](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/vampiric): Vampiric organisms are those that obtain nutrients by feeding on the blood or bodily fluids of other animals. - [Nocturnal](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/nocturnal): Nocturnal animals are primarily active during the nighttime hours, typically resting or sleeping during the day. - [Venomous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/venomous): Venomous organisms produce toxins that are injected into another animal, typically through a bite or sting. ## Collections - [Mammals](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/mammals) ## Safety **Danger:** 2/5 · Low Vampire bats are not found near people, but it's important to stay away from wild animals. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How to identify Vampire Bat? Compare ears, muzzle, tail, feet and coat markings. Size is hard to judge without something nearby for scale, and young mammals may not have adult coloring yet. Mammal Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details. ### How long is Vampire Bat? 7-9 cm ### What is Vampire Bat's wingspan? 28-35 cm ### How much does Vampire Bat weigh? 0.015-0.05 kg ### How long does Vampire Bat live? 5-9 years ### How fast can Vampire Bat move? 30 km/h ### Where is Vampire Bat usually found? Caves ## More Mammals - [Eastern Fox Squirrel](https://www.snappit.app/explore/eastern-fox-squirrel) (*Sciurus niger*) - [Eastern Cottontail](https://www.snappit.app/explore/eastern-cottontail) (*Sylvilagus floridanus*) - [Eastern Chipmunk](https://www.snappit.app/explore/eastern-chipmunk) (*Tamias striatus*) - [California Ground Squirrel](https://www.snappit.app/explore/california-ground-squirrel) (*Otospermophilus beecheyi*) --- Source: [Vampire Bat: Facts & Places to See — Snappit](https://www.snappit.app/explore/vampire-bat)