Vampire Bat is a creature of legends, myths and Hollywood flicks. Most people associate them to the legend of Dracula and vampires. In reality their reputation is somewhat unjustified. First of all these rainforest animals are not very large with bodies that can grow up to only 3 inches long and wing span of up to 8 inches. And they actually dislike human blood!

Albeit, the vampire bats do feed on animal blood and this habit, known as 'hematophagy', is found in a few other select species as well. Vampire Bats are only found in the rainforest of America, especially in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. There are three types of Vampire bats found in these rainforests:

1. The Common Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus)
2. The Hairy-legged Vampire Bat (Diphylla ecaudata) and
3. The White-winged Vampire Bat (Diaemus youngi).

You must have noticed that their biological names bear no similarities. That is because these three species of vampire bats, even though related, are too dissimilar to be classified under the same genetic family.

The Vampire bats have furry bodies, their backs covered by dark amber fur and belly covered by brown fur that is very soft and velvety. Their faces look like small pigs, with snout like mouths that end u-shaped pads. They have strong legs which enable them to walk or hop on ground pretty fast. They also have a clawed thumb in the end of each wing, which they use to hang on to their prey. True to legends and stories though, the rainforest vampire bats have infrared sensors which let them track their prey through heat sensors. Unlike common bats, their brain is also modified to receive these infrared signals.

Vampire bats are nocturnal creatures like their common counterparts and only hunt during night. Their diets differ from species to species with the common vampire bats preferring the blood of mammals and other two species preferring bird blood. To suit their diet, their digestive system is built to support a liquid diet only. They also have very sharp incisors that cut easily. Contrary to popular myth, vampire bats don’t really suck the blood but rather simply lap it up with their tongue which contains an anti-clotting agent called 'draculin'.

Most often vampire bats simply latch on to sleeping mammals, quite like mosquitoes, and prepare to feed. They are able to use their heat sensors to find veins to bite. They can also feed for as a long time without waking the animal they are feeding on. However, scientists have found that Vampire bats often struggle to find sleeping victims and so when they find one they feed on enormous amount of blood and then literally become too heavy to fly off. Vampire bats need to feed regularly and can die if they don’t feed for more than two days. Female vampire bats sometimes give mouth to mouth “blood transfusion” to other bats in times of shortage.

Vampire bats, like their common counterparts prefer to nest in cold dark places like caves or old dead trees. While there can be more than a thousand vampire bats in a big colony, they are also known to live on their own. They are also found living with colonies of common bats.

In a system totally opposite to that of the bees, vampire bat colonies have only one reproducing male surrounded by a harem of about twenty odd females and their offspring. Vampire bats mate every season and give birth to only one offspring after a gestation period of 205 to 214 days. Each vampire bat can live up to 9 years but scientists have found that they can live 10 years longer in captivity.

Vampire bats are hunted themselves by bigger birds like eagles and hawks and are killed by farmers because their bite can cause rabies in animals. However, they are nowhere near endangered as of now.