#No worse than being a carnivore. the blood to blood contact makes them vectors for disease but that's not their fault

[transgender-chiroptera]

Can you share some of your favorite bat facts? I wanna add more to my lil arsenal of cool random facts. :]

Of course! Apologies for the late response, I saw this at like 1am four days ago, forgot everything I knew about bats, and then fell asleep and only remembered I even got this ask today. Anyways! Some bat facts :)

Common Vampire bats are some of my absolute favourites, mostly because of their ability to run on the ground! They can gallop with their forelimbs and take off from the ground by leaping into the air and catapulting themselves with their wings, which is speculated to be how Pterodactyls took off as well! Most bats cannot take off from the ground, and must be elevated to take flight, so this is pretty cool. Makes sense too, since they mostly feed from the ankles of large mammals and so need ground maneuverability!

Here's a video of a vamp taking off, and here's a video of one walking around! I think their skittery movements and lil' faces are just the CUTEST, but I know I'm probably in the minority there. Also there's a large dish of blood in the second video, so fair warning there!

All three true Vampire bats have evolved special grooves in their mouths in order to act as a gutter of sorts to funnel the blood into their mouths, but the exact arrangement differs between them. The Hairy-Legged Vampire bat has a groove along the roof of the mouth, whereas the White-Winged and Common Vampire bats have lingual grooves under the tounge! Speaking of White-Winged Vampire bats, they're the only bats in the world with 22 teeth, for some reason (likely no reason since the molars are vestigial), AND they have scent glands in their mouths that might be used to deter predators. Pretty cool stuff!

Finally, all three species of true Vampire Bats are cute as hell. Look at these lil' guys!!

(left to right- White-winged, Hairy-legged, and Common Vampire bats!)

#idk why the vampire theme these guys are just always on the brain. I love them so much #they aren't scary at all! being a hematophage doesn't automatically make a creature scary or bad in any way #No worse than being a carnivore. the blood to blood contact makes them vectors for disease but that's not their fault #besides so would being carnivorous if they didn't have to kill their prey most of the time lol #I love and appreciate these beasts. They have an important place in the ecosystem and should be respected. the best that can be done #to mitigate the diseases they are vectors for are vaccination efforts and improved accessibility to healthcare #but that's a wholee other discussion lol. hate that i feel the need to go on the defensive when saying i like an animal I'm passionate abou #ANYWAYS tag ramble over. thank you for the ask!!! always love an excuse to talk about bats haha #ask #raybytheway #bat #common vampire bat #white-winged vampire bat #hairy-legged vampire bat