Vampire Bats Are Not As Dangerous As Many Assume

Everyone has heard of the frightening vampire bat, and these bats certainly sound scary, but how would they behave around humans? Long before Columbus had a chance to capture the American bat for its delivery to Europe, vampires were the stuff of folklore in European communities. Today people associate the vampire bat with Dracula. There have been a few books written, and movies made that involve fictional vampires, or Dracula, morphing into vampire bats. However, no association exists between the vampires of old European folklore and vampire bats.

Vampire bats are not deserving of the macabre reputation given to them by literature and cinema. For one thing, and as I already mentioned, bats existed in the world long before they got their names from stories written by people. To be precise, it was the 1897 book Dracula by Bram Stoker that changed the way people thought about bats. This book created an association between vampires and vampire bats that is still a part of western culture to this day. However, vampire bats had been described in scientific literature since 1810, and Charles Darwin first documented the flying creatures in 1839.

Despite what horror movies may have you believe about vampire bats, the fact of the matter is that vampire bats do not seek out humans for any reason, let alone to suck our blood. Despite their distaste for humans, vampire bats have a broad taste that includes many animals. Some of the stranger examples of animals that are prime targets for vampire bats include porcupines, armadillos, snakes and even sea lions and penguin. Although vampire bats have been observed feeding on the blood of the various animals mentioned above, vampire bats prefer to feed on livestock, and birds. So unless you are any of those animals, vampire bats are nothing for you to fear.

Have you ever found a vampire bat within your own home?