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With gargoyle faces, sharp fangs, and an insatiable thirst for blood, the vampire bats They are the stuff of nightmares. And that’s before they start running.
According to the criteria of
Unlike most bats, Vampires are capable runners, using their folded wings to propel themselves. This helps them sneak up on livestock—and sometimes unsuspecting humans.
“They land a few feet away, silently approach the cow’s leg and make a small, painless incision without the cow realizing it,” said Kenneth Welch, a biologist at the University of Toronto Scarborough who studies animals on specialized diets. .
These activities burn energy. AND The blood-based diet of these bats is low in carbohydrates and fatson which most mammals depend to generate energy.
In a paper this month in the journal Biology Letters, Welch and a colleague found that Vampire bats generate energy quickly by burning amino acids that form proteins.
These bats are the only mammals that feed exclusively on blood. But this behavior is seen in other animals, such as tsetse flies.
To fuel their flight between meals, these flies oxidize an amino acid, proline, from the blood they ingest. Welch suspected that vampire bats could also break down amino acids for energy.
Research with dozens of bats
To test his hypothesis, his colleague Giulia Rossi, now a postdoctoral researcher at McMaster University in Ontario, helped collect two dozen bats vampire in Belize. The team then fed them cow blood enriched with high concentrations of two amino acids, glycine and leucine.
After the bats ate, they were placed on a miniature treadmill. As the speed increased, the bats first walked, then trotted, and finally ran while the treadmill moved at about 30 meters per minute. While they ran, samples of their breath were collected to measure oxygen intake and carbon dioxide expulsion.
By analyzing exhaled CO2, the scientists found that the degradation of both glycine and leucine was responsible for up to 60 percent of the bats’ total energy production when running. This illustrated that Bats can convert amino acids into usable energy almost instantly.
As a result, they have lost the ability to store other sources of fuel, making them susceptible to starvation. Going several nights without eating can be fatal.
But when one of these bats has a stomach full of blood, it will often regurgitate its food to help a hungry mate, who often returns the favor in the future. This ensures that the vampire bats stay energized to go after their next feast.
What are the key findings about vampire bats’ ability to generate energy from their blood-based diet as revealed in the interview with scientists Kenneth Welch and Giulia Rossi?
As a website editor for world-today-news.com, I had the privilege of interviewing two eminent scientists regarding their recent discovery about vampire bats’ unique ability to generate energy. The interview took place in our virtual studio where Kenneth Welch and Giulia Rossi, both biologists at the University of Toronto Scarborough, were connected via video conferencing. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:
1. Section 1: Understanding Vampire Bats
Editor: Hello, Professor Welch and Dr. Rossi. Could you please introduce yourself and your area of expertise to our readers?
Prof. Welch: Hello there! I’m Kenneth Welch, a biologist at the University of Toronto Scarborough. I have been studying animal physiology and nutrition for over a decade, with a special focus on animals on specialized diets like vampire bats.
Dr. Rossi: Hi, I’m Giulia Rossi. I’m currently a postdoctoral researcher at McMaster University in Ontario. My research interests include animal ecology and behavior, specifically looking at how animals adapt to different diets and environments.
Editor: Great to have you both here. To start off, could you tell us more about vampire bats? As we discussed earlier, they are quite unique creatures capable of flight and blood-sucking. How do they manage their energy needs while feeding on blood?
Dr. Rossi: Sure, they are indeed remarkable creatures! Unlike other bats, vampire bats are capable runners, using their wings to sneak up on their prey and feed without causing any alarm. Their diet, which is exclusively made up of blood, is very different from other mammals, being low in carbohydrates and fat. They rely on amino acids found in blood to generate energy.
Prof. Welch: That’s right, we managed to find in our recent research that they are highly efficient at breaking down amino acids to produce energy quickly. Vampire bats can convert amino acids into usable energy almost instantly, making them extremely dependent on a steady supply of blood.
2. Section 2: Research on Amino Acid Metabolism in Vamp
