Vampire Bats are draining the blood of Brazilians!

Brazilians have for a long time had profound respect and fear of the many native predatory animals that inhabit their country.  Animals such as piranhas, jaguars, anaconda, electric eels, and poisonous dart frogs all call Brazil home. As if those creatures weren’t fearsome enough however, there is now one more terrifying animal Brazilians need to be wary of – the Vampire Bat!!

It’s no surpise that Vampire Bats call Brazil home. What is a surprise however, is that researchers have recently discovered that some Brazilian Vampire Bats are feeding off the blood of humans!!

The specific bat in question is the hairy-legged Vampire Bat (aka Diphylla ecaudata).

The discovery of the bat’s hair-raising diet was made by analyzing the bat’s guano to determine what the it’s food source was – the result? Chicken blood and HUMAN BLOOD! Researchers were incredibly shocked at the result as not only had they no idea that these vampire bats were draining humans, they also did not think it was even physically possible!

It is believed that the bat’s human blood diet is in part due to deforestation of the bat’s normal habitat.  The bat no longer has wild birds to prey on, so it goes for the next best thing – humans!