Vampire Bats Can Sense The Blood Running Through Your Veins!

Vampire Bats Can Sense The Blood Running Through Your Veins!

If you are afraid of bats, then maybe you should reconsider reading this. Bats, some may claim, are unpleasant creatures. Even the common bat, which you can sometimes see flying haphazardly through the sky right after dusk, is scary enough, especially since their flying-style makes it looks like they could stumble into your face at any moment. However, vampire bats are also the bats of folklore, and even rationally minded people cannot help but to cringe when imagining this fierce flying critter snacking on warm blood. But there are many misconceptions regarding vampire bats, and bats in general as well.  Of course, sucking blood is not all that the vampire bat is capable of; vampire bats can also sense the heat of the blood that is rushing through your veins.

Researchers have long been aware of the fact that vampire bats possess specialized organs that help them to sense the body-areas where the most blood is present. However, for the longest time, researchers were at a loss to explain why vampire bats bite their prey on particular areas.

Now, according to a new study, bats have evolved nerves in their face that allow them to detect body temperatures.  Bats adapted in unusual way to their environment. For example, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon, humans have one type of temperature sense, and we experience it when we touch a stove or something else that is extremely hot. But bats have two heat sensors, one for pain (like ours), and another heat sensor helps bats prey on the warm, and blood-filled veins of its prey. This evolutionary adaptation has only been observed in three different types of snakes before the bat-study. This adaptation is especially important to the vampire bat, since vampire bats consume blood in order to survive.

Have you ever witnessed a vampire bat sucking blood out of an animal?