Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years.
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It’s been a very rainy one here, and it looks like we’re going to get lots more rain. If this doesn’t stop, I’m going to have to build an ark for all my batty friends.
I promised last week that I would write about an Argentinian bat and I think I found a very cute one. Of course, all of them were cute, but since Halloween is coming up I thought it would be nice to write about the white-winged vampire bat. It is soooooo cute!
The white-winged vampire bat is tiny. It’s only about 3.3 inches long and doesn’t have an external tail. The adults weigh about 30-45 grams. The fur is a shiny claylike color, light brown, or a dark cinnamon brown. The edges of the wings are obviously white. The wing membrane between its 2nd and 3rd fingers is white too. They have a cute little thumb that has a pad under it. One thing I thought was interesting is that the white-winged vampire bat is the only bat known to have 22 permanent teeth. The other two vampire bats only have 20 teeth.
Everyone knows that vampire bats feed on blood, but they don’t often feed on human blood, so there is no need to be scared of them. White-winged vampire bats drink blood from the feet of birds. You can read more about this cute little bat here.
So, this Halloween (only 28 days away!) when everyone has all their batty decorations out, don’t be scared. Vampire bats are cute! And they don’t really “vant to suck your blood.”
I hope everyone has a fun week.
[For more amazing vampire bat fun, visit our friend Dr. Gerry Carter's page at socialbat.org.--Ed.]