| White-winged vampire bat | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Phyllostomidae |
| Genus: | Diaemus Miller, 1906 |
| Species: | D. youngi |
| Binomial name | |
| Diaemus youngi Jentink, 1893 | |
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| Range map | |
The white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi), a species of vampire bat, is the only member of the genus Diaemus. They are found from Mexico to northern Argentina and are present on the islands of Trinidad and Margarita.
The white-winged vampire bat was described by Dutch zoologist Fredericus Anna Jentink in 1893. [2] Dr. Charles Grove Young (1849–1934) is the eponym for the species name youngi. [3] Jentink decided to honor Young with the species name because "our Museum is indebted [to him] for so many additions to its collections of the British Guyana animals." [2] When it was described by Jentink in 1893, it was initially placed in the same genus as the common vampire bat, Desmodus. However, in 1907, Gerrit Smith Miller Jr. placed it in a new genus, Diaemus. [4] That move to a new genus was not immediately accepted, however, with authors continuing to place it in Desmodus until at least 1982. [5] [6]
Their fur is clay-colored, light brown, or dark cinnamon brown. The outline of their wings is white, as well as the membrane between their second and third finger. Their ears are longer than they are wide, at 18 mm (0.71 in) long. The anterior surface of the tragus is hairy, and its outer margin is smooth, unlike that of the common vampire bat, which is serrated. Their thumb is much shorter than that of the common vampire bat. Their forearms are 51–54 mm (2.0–2.1 in) long. The calcar is absent. Their dental formula is 1.1.1.22.1.2.1, for a total of 22 teeth; the common vampire bat has 20 teeth and the hairy-legged vampire bat 26, respectively. [7]
It is the only bat species in the world with 22 teeth. [8] The last upper molars are vestigial, though, and older individuals sometimes lose them. The uropatagium and forearms are sparsely furred. From nose to tail, they are approximately 84 mm (3.3 in) long. [9] They weigh 31.7–48.1 g (1.12–1.70 oz). Both males and females have cup-shaped scent glands located in their mouths. [10] These glands might be an anti-predator defense, as the bats produce a foul-smelling odor from these glands when they are disturbed. [11] Compared to other bats, their brains are especially large in relation to their body sizes—2.7–2.9% by body mass. This may be because their foraging strategy requires more complex thought (such as maintaining stealth) than other species. Their eyes are also relatively large in relation to their body sizes. [9]
Like other vampire bats, their saliva contains plasminogen activators, which rapidly dissolves the host's blood clots that form during feeding; platelet aggregation inhibitors, which prevent the formation of blood clots; and other anticoagulants. These compounds in their saliva are especially effective on birds. Birds are their preferred prey source, but they will also prey on mammals such as goats and cattle. [9] While it can transmit rabies, this appears to be relatively uncommon: the only reports of rabies transmission from this species are from Trinidad. [11] [12] They are not as adept as common vampire bats at quadrupedal locomotion, possibly because their thumbs are much shorter. [13] However, they are quite adept at climbing branches. Females are polyestrous, capable of becoming pregnant multiple times a year. They give birth to one pup at a time. [14] [15] They will roost with many other species of bat, including the greater sac-winged bat, lesser dog-like bat, big-eared woolly bat, tailed tailless bat, Seba's short-tailed bat, little yellow-shouldered bat, great fruit-eating bat, white-lined broad-nosed bat, Pallas's long-tongued bat, Handley's nectar bat, white-bellied big-eared bat, greater spear-nosed bat, Parnell's mustached bat, Wagner's mustached bat, buffy broad-nosed bat, and common vampire bat. [10] [16] [17] Their karyotype consists of 32 chromosomes. [7]
They have been found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. [1] They have flexible roosting and foraging habitat requirements. They prefer moist, open areas, but will still forage in dry deciduous or evergreen forests. [18] They will roost in both tree cavities and caves. [11]
They are consistently assessed as least concern by the IUCN. While it is infrequently encountered, it has a broad distribution, and is tolerant of a variety of habitats. The population is assumed to be large. [1]
They can be maintained in captivity. Captive populations can be supported with cow and chicken blood. Blood must be defibrinated to prevent clotting. Each bat ingests approximately 16 ml (0.54 US fl oz) of blood per day. They are social animals, and should be maintained in colonies. Their colonies have dominance hierarchies. [19]
Vampire bats, members of the subfamily Desmodontinae, are leaf-nosed bats currently found in Central and South America. Their food source is the blood of other animals, a dietary trait called hematophagy. Three extant bat species feed solely on blood: the common vampire bat, the hairy-legged vampire bat, and the white-winged vampire bat. Two extinct species of the genus Desmodus have been found in North America.
The New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are bats found from southern North America to South America, specifically from the Southwest United States to northern Argentina. They are ecologically the most varied and diverse family within the order Chiroptera. Most species are insectivorous, but the phyllostomid bats include within their number true predatory species and frugivores. For example, the spectral bat, the largest bat in the Americas, eats vertebrate prey, including small, dove-sized birds. Members of this family have evolved to use food groups such as fruit, nectar, pollen, insects, frogs, other bats, and small vertebrates, and in the case of the vampire bats, even blood.
The spectral bat, also called the great false vampire bat, great spectral bat, American false vampire bat or Linnaeus's false vampire bat, is a large, carnivorous leaf-nosed bat found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. It is the only member of the genus Vampyrum; its closest living relative is the big-eared woolly bat. It is the largest bat species in the New World, as well as the largest carnivorous bat: its wingspan is 0.7–1.0 m (2.3–3.3 ft). It has a robust skull and teeth, with which it delivers a powerful bite to kill its prey. Birds are frequent prey items, though it may also consume rodents, insects, and other bats.
Desmodus is a genus of bats which—along with the genera Diaemus and Diphylla—are allied as the subfamily Desmodontinae, the carnivorous, blood-consuming vampire bats of the New World leaf-nosed bat family Phyllostomidae.
The big brown bat is a species of vesper bat distributed widely throughout North America, the Caribbean, and the northern portion of South America. It was first described as a species in 1796. Compared to other microbats, the big brown bat is relatively large, weighing 15–26 g (0.53–0.92 oz) and possessing a wingspan of 32.5–35 cm (12.8–13.8 in).
The common vampire bat is a small, leaf-nosed bat native to the Neotropics. It is one of three extant species of vampire bat, the other two being the hairy-legged and the white-winged vampire bats. The common vampire bat practices hematophagy, mainly feeding on the blood of livestock. The bat usually approaches its prey at night while they are sleeping. It then uses its razor-sharp teeth to cut open the skin of its hosts and lap up their blood with its long tongue.
The hairy-legged vampire bat is one of three extant species of vampire bats. It mainly feeds on the blood of wild birds, but can also feed both on domestic birds and humans. This vampire bat lives mainly in tropical and subtropical forestlands of South America, Central America, and southern Mexico. It is the sole member of the genus Diphylla.
Davy's (lesser) naked-backed bat is a small, insect-eating, cave-dwelling bat of the Family Mormoopidae. It is found throughout South and Central America, including Trinidad, but not Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, or French Guiana. Specimens of this bat had been found infected with rabies in Trinidad during the height of that island's vampire-bat-transmitted rabies epidemic of the early half of the 20th century, but not in recent times.
Greenhall's dog-faced bat is a South American bat species of the family Molossidae. It is found in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, the Guianas, northeastern Brazil and Trinidad.
Fernandez's sword-nosed bat is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is the smallest species of the Lonchorhina genus. It is endemic to Venezuela. In 2013, Bat Conservation International listed this species as one of the 35 species of its worldwide priority list of conservation. It is threatened by habitat loss. It derives its scientific name from a Venezuelan zoologist, Dr. Alberto Fernandez Badillo, whose research focused on vampire bats, in particular.
The little brown bat or little brown myotis is an endangered species of mouse-eared microbat found in North America. It has a small body size and glossy brown fur. It is similar in appearance to several other mouse-eared bats, including the Indiana bat, northern long-eared bat, and Arizona myotis, to which it is closely related. Despite its name, the little brown bat is not closely related to the big brown bat, which belongs to a different genus.
Desmodus draculae is an extinct species of vampire bat that inhabited Central and South America during the Pleistocene, and possibly the early Holocene. It was 30% larger than its living relative the common vampire bat. Fossils and unmineralized subfossils have been found in Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Belize, and Bolivia.
In animals, rabies is a viral zoonotic neuroinvasive disease which causes inflammation in the brain and is usually fatal. Rabies, caused by the rabies virus, primarily infects mammals. In the laboratory it has been found that birds can be infected, as well as cell cultures from birds, reptiles and insects. The brains of animals with rabies deteriorate. As a result, they tend to behave bizarrely and often aggressively, increasing the chances that they will bite another animal or a person and transmit the disease.
Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera. With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane or patagium. The smallest bat, and arguably the smallest extant mammal, is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, which is 29–34 millimetres in length, 150 mm (6 in) across the wings and 2–2.6 g in mass. The largest bats are the flying foxes, with the giant golden-crowned flying fox reaching a weight of 1.6 kg and having a wingspan of 1.7 m.
Joseph Lennox Donation Pawan MBE was a Trinidadian bacteriologist who was the first person to show that rabies could be spread by vampire bats to other animals and humans.
Vampire bats have developed a specialized system using infrared-sensitive receptors on their nose-leaf to prey on homeothermic (warm-blooded) vertebrates. Trigeminal nerve fibers that innervate these IR-sensitive receptors may be involved in detection of infrared thermal radiation emitted by their prey. This may aid bats in locating blood-rich areas on their prey. In addition, neuroanatomical and molecular research has suggested possible similarities of IR-sensing mechanisms between vampire bats and IR-sensitive snakes. Infrared sensing in vampire bats has not yet been hypothesized to be image forming, as it was for IR-sensitive snakes. While the literature on IR-sensing in vampire bats is thin, progress continues to be made in this field to identify how vampire bats can sense and use infrared thermal radiation.
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