Wild Vampire Bats bats develop taste for human blood.
Brazil – Wild Vampire Bats have been caught sucking human blood for supper caught the attention of the online world.
In a recent news report of telegraph.co.uk, Enrico Bernard from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and his team confirmed that vampire bats in Brazil have been sipping on humans for supper.
Bernard revealed that they analyzed 70 feces samples from a colony of hairy-legged vampire bats. These bats are living in Catimbau National Park in north-east Brazil.
After they analyzed the excrement of 70 bats, they found out that three samples out of the 15 bats that they managed to get DNA from had traces of blood from humans.
Bernard said that they were in great surprised about this new information that they found out.
“We were quite surprised,” said Mr. Bernard. “This species isn’t adapted to feed on the blood of mammals.”
Furthermore, Bernard said that these Wild vampire bats that were thought to exclusively feed on bird blood were probably entering human homes, or by targeting people who are sleeping in Hammocks.
The bats typically target large birds at night-time, sucking a spoonful of blood as a meal.
After Enrico Bernard from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and his team revealed the news to the public, health concerns were being raised. As Vampire bats are the major transmitter of rabies in Brazil.
Daniel Becker from the University of Georgia in Athens, US, who is studying vampire bats in agricultural landscapes, said that the virus can
cause a respiratory disease in humans
He said that this alarming news about the infectious disease which is carried by the vampire bats should be investigated.
“Past work has found that it carries the hantavirus,” he says.
Scientist thinks that human encroachment on their territory may be driving the species to try new blood.