Bat-tacular!

Today's animal of the day is the Vampire Bat!

I know you want to know about this awesome animal as much as a vampire wants to suck your blood so here ya go!

• The vampire bat is found in Central America, Mexico, and South America
• There body is 3.5 inches with a 7 inch wing span. They weigh 2oz, but after they feed their weight can double.
• As the name suggests, vampire bats drink blood. They get the blood usually from horses or cows. They usually drink for 30mins and they don't take enough blood to harm the animal. They have a heat sensor on their nose that directs them to where warm blood is flowing. In one year, a 100-bat colony can drink the blood of 25 cows.
• Vampire bats, as well as all other bats, are the only flying mammal
• Since they drink blood, the vampire bat doesn't have very many teeth. But the teeth they have are very sharp.

Check out those chompers!

 So you want a Pet Vampire Bat...
Actually, I really don't know why you would want a vampire bat, but just in case you're weird and do, Let's examine why that is a poor life choice!

• They drink blood. THEY DRINK BLOOD. You have a lot of blood. Although they primarily feed off of cattle, they have been known to drink the blood of people before. Even if you're not feeding them your own blood (we'll examine why that is also a poor choice) you're going to have to find other blood to feed them.
• They're sick. Even though they can't drink enough blood to harm their host, their bites can cause infection. So no, you can't really save money on food for your bat. 
• They're creatures of the night. Bats are nocturnal. They hunt and are active during the night when you're trying to sleep. They can also attack you while you're asleep. They're also really good at feeding, you won't even know they're there. 
• They're creepy. Bat's fly and hang upside down, everyone knows that. But, when they're hunting they crawl on all fours on the ground. It's extremely disturbing. That is how they will approach your bed while you're asleep.  Check out the video below of their weird creeper crawl

• It's basically illegal. If you were to own a bat, you have to have several permits. You also can't take it from the wild, and even if you locate one, there's pretty strict laws about transportation so it's highly likely that you couldn't even get the bat to you. This is an animal that best remain in the wild.

So there weren't any funny Vampire bat videos out there that I could locate, so here's a video of a human pretending to be a bat and scaring people in public places!