Do Bats Drink Blood?: Fascinating Answers to Questions about Bats

Six: Dangers and Defenses

SIX Dangers and Defenses Question 1: Are bats aggressive? Answer: Bats are generally shy, reclusive animals that prefer to hide. They are unlikely to attack people, except under unusual circumstances (see chapter 6, question 2: Do bats bite people?). However, some species, like the solitary eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis), chase intruding bats out of their feeding territories while they are flying, and it is not uncommon for these bats to seriously injure one another if they are caught and caged together . Many species live in colonies where large numbers of individuals cohabitate. Bats in these groups often squeak and buzz, sometimes butting their heads together or briskly pushing their muzzles into one another as they squabble and jostle for roosting positions. Most of these interactions do not result in injury. Bat behavior can change during the mating season, when males of some species are likely to become more aggressive. For example, Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) are generally very mild mannered, but during mating season males in captivity sometimes bare their teeth and bob their heads at one another when protecting mating territories. Occasionally, these disputes become increasingly aggressive, with males swatting one another with folded wings or even biting until one chases the other away. Two captive males may even lock jaws and fall to the floor of their cage, rolling around as they struggle with one another, although this degree of aggression is less common. In the wild, dominant males with harems, like the straw-colored 82 DO BATS DRINK BLOOD? flying fox (Eidolon helvum), often aggressively chase off other males that attempt to intrude, squawking loudly and swatting or biting the intruder. Question 2: Do bats bite people? Answer: Bats rarely bite people and they are normally not aggressive ; their instinct is to hide or to fly away if a person approaches them in the wild. However, if they are touched or picked up, they will often bite to protect themselves, like any other wild animal. Also, a bat with rabies may behave abnormally and fly erratically, even during the day (see chapter 6, question 3: Do all bats have rabies?). About one-half of 1 percent of bats get rabies, and if a sick bat makes accidental contact with a person as it flounders around, it may instinctively bite in self-defense, especially if someone tries to touch it. In order to get up off the ground, a sick or injured bat may climb up onto yard furniture or some other atypical place where, again, it is more likely to have accidental contact with people than would normally occur. In some parts of the American tropics, people who sleep outdoors or in buildings without screened windows are sometimes bitten by vampire bats, but this is only likely to happen if the bats’ normal sources of food are gone. For example, if the bats had been feeding on a herd of cattle and the cattle were moved away, the bats might resort to feeding on people who are easily accessible. People who are bitten by vampire bats are not generally bitten on the neck, as portrayed in movies; it is more likely a bat will bite an exposed big toe, where there are many blood vessels just beneath the skin. Bat bites can easily be avoided by educating children and adults not to touch bats, and in parts of the tropics where vampire bats live, bites can be avoided by sleeping indoors and screening the windows in sleeping quarters. Question 3: Do all bats have rabies? Answer: Rabies is a disease caused by a virus in the genus Lyssavirus , family Rhabdoviridae. There are seven different strains DANGERS AND DEFENSES 83 (genotypes) of Lyssavirus, including classical rabies virus, found worldwide; Lagos bat virus, Mokala virus, and Duvenhage virus in Africa; European bat lyssaviruses 1 and 2; and an Australian bat lyssavirus. Classical rabies is the genotype found in the United States and discussed in this section. It is also the genotype responsible for the majority of human rabies cases worldwide . The vast majority of bats do not have rabies. Although it varies from species to species, surveys by bat researchers have found that only about one-half of 1 percent of all bats have rabies , and that percentage appears to have remained stable over a period of several decades. The disease is transmitted from one infected (rabid) animal to another through a bite, or...