BAT RESEARCH NEWS

Volume 52: Number 3

Fall 2011

Reprint
Renan de Frana Souza, Camila SantAnna, Mariana V.P. Aguiar, Andr C.
Siqueira, Davi C. Tavares, Rafael S. Laurindo, and Roberto Leonan M. Novaes.
2011. Opportunistic consumption of blood from Pallass long-tongued bat,
Glossophaga soricina, by the common vampire, Desmodus rotundus, in Brazil.
Bat Research News, 52(3): 3940.

Copyright 2011 Bat Research News. All rights reserved. This material is protected by
copyright and may not be reproduced, transmitted, posted on a Web site or a listserve, or
disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the Publisher,
Dr. Margaret A. Griffiths. The article is for individual use only.

Bat Research News is ISSN # 0005-6227.

This issue printed September 25, 2011.

Opportunistic Consumption of Blood from Pallass Long-tongued Bat, Glossophaga

soricina, by the Common Vampire, Desmodus rotundus, in Brazil
Renan de Frana Souza1,2, Camila SantAnna3, Mariana V.P. Aguiar1, Andr C. Siqueira1, Davi
C. Tavares1, Rafael S. Laurindo1, and Roberto Leonan M. Novaes1,3
1

Ncleo de Pesquisas Integradas, Instituto Sul Mineiro de Estudos e Conservao da Natureza.

Fazenda Lagoa, rea rural, CP 72, CEP 37115-000, Monte Belo, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
2
Laboratrio de Ecologia e Conservao de Populaes, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto
de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373, Sala A027, Ilha do Fundo, CEP: 21941-902, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
3
Laboratrio de Mastozoologia, Departamento de Zoologia, IBIO, Universidade Federal do
Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Av. Pasteur, 458, Sala 501, Urca, CEP: 22290-240, Rio de Janeiro,
RJ, Brasil.
E-mail: ismecn@gmail.com

Bats frequently are used as food by birds

of prey (Twente, 1954; Escarlate-Tavares and
Pessa, 2005) and snakes (Martins and
Oliveira, 1998; Esbrard and Vrcibradic,
2007) and occasionally consumed by felids,
opossums, primates, rodents, and other bats
(Wroe and Wroe, 1982; Gardner et al., 1991;
Fischer et al., 1997; Souza et al., 1997;
Fellers,
2000).
The
opportunistic
consumption of bats that are entangled in mist
nets has been reported for many non-volant
mammals, including canids, felids, and
marsupials (Breviglieri and Pedro, 2010;
Gazarini et al., 2008; Novaes et al., 2011;
Patrcio-Costa et al., 2010; Rocha-Mendes
and Bianconi, 2009), and for other bats
(Oprea et al., 2006). However, there are no
published observations of attacks by the
common vampire, Desmodus rotundus, on
another bat caught in a mist net.
Between 17 and 21 July 2010, a survey of
bats was carried out at Reserva Particular do
Patrimnio
Natural
Fazenda
Lagoa
(212441.8S and 461553.7W), a preserve
containing ca. 300 ha of Atlantic Forest, in
southern Minas Gerais, Brazil. On 20 July
2010, at 2036 hours, we observed a female
Pallass long-tongued bat, Glossophaga
soricina, in a mist net being attacked by a
common vampire that was caught in the same

net. The attack produced an open wound on

the rostrum of the long-tongued bat, from
which the vampire licked the blood. We also
found puncture wounds in the left wing of the
long-tongued bat, between the second and
third digits.
The common vampire consumes the blood
of
warm-blooded
animals,
especially
medium- and large-sized mammals (Aguiar,
2007; Greenhall et al., 1983). However, our
observation is the first record of a vampire bat
attacking another bat tangled in a mist net. It
is doubtful, though, whether vampires
commonly attack other bats under natural
conditions, because most bats, especially
small-bodied bats like the long-tongued bat,
probably do not provide a useful volume of
blood.
Acknowledgments.We thank Maria
Cristina Weyland Vieira and the team at
Reserva Particular do Patrimnio Natural
Fazenda Lagoa, for technical and logistical
support; Mariana Pacheco Gomes dos Santos,
for helping with the translation; and Zootech,
for sponsoring our research.
Literature Cited
Aguiar,
L.M.S.
2007.
Subfamlia
Desmodontinae. Pp. 3943, in Morcegos
do Brasil (N.R. Reis, A.L. Peracchi, W.A.

2011 Bat Research News. All rights reserved.

40

Bat Research News

Pedro, and I.P. Lima, eds.). Editora da

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morcegos por Didelphis albiventris no sul

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