What They Are
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Due to differences among the three species, each has been placed within a different genus, each consisting of one species. In the older literature, these three genera were placed within a family of their own, Desmodontidae, but taxonomists have now grouped them as a subfamily, the Desmodontinae, in the American leaf-nosed bat family, Phyllostomidae.
What They Eat
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Vampire bats, which live only in South America, lap up the blood of animals. Most attacks are against sleeping farm animals and poultry that they bite with razor-sharp teeth. Their saliva has an anti-coagulant property that prevents the blood from congealing and the wound bleeds freely, sometimes causing the animal to bleed to death.
Where They Live
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Vampire bats live in abandoned houses, wells, tree hollows and mainly caves.
Vampire Bats range from South America northward to and past the Island of Trinidad, through Central America, the tropics of Mexico stopping at the southern state of Texas, in the United States. See the related link for more information.
Vampire Bats range from South America northward to and past the Island of Trinidad, through Central America, the tropics of Mexico stopping at the southern state of Texas, in the United States. See the related link for more information.