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this sucks
Blood is a high-protein cocktail with glucose, lipids, free amino-acids, salts and urea thrown in to taste. It tastes metallic because of the iron contained in the haemoglobin protein of the red blood cells, which also gives it that glorious colour.
taste for blood
There are a number of creatures with a taste for blood. Leeches, ticks, bedbugs, lampreys and, of course, vampire bats, make it their staple diet. But blood is tricky, sticky stuff to eat.
blood flow
Blood flows easily through the network of vessels in our bodies providing oxygen and nutrients to the cells. But as soon as a wound occurs, tiny cells known as ‘platelets’ combine with clotting factors in the blood to plug the wound. This is generally a good thing since otherwise we’d just bleed to death. But thinking in terms of lunch for blood-lovers, a lumpy clot or crispy scab is not nearly as appetising or as filling as a pint of scarlet bodily fluid.
clotting
Without any means of preventing clotting, any creature wishing to partake in the red nectar would soon have their eating apparatus clogged up. Blood-feasters all have an anti-coagulant, a substance that prevents clotting, present in their saliva.
mosquito vamps
Mosquitoes use the heat produced by mammals to sense where they can find blood. It’s only the females that suck blood – they need it for egg development. Male mosquitoes would rather plunge their needle-like mouth-parts into fruit juice.
leech vamps
Leeches have a sucker that clasps them onto their victim. Initially the body is rigid while its semi-circular jaws and saw-like teeth cut into the flesh. The leech then produces mucous that glues it in place and as its body relaxes, the blood is ingested and the leech swells up. Leeches can consume several times their own body weight of blood in one sucking. A bacterium in its stomach helps digest the blood and stops the growth of other bacteria that would putrefy it.
tick vamps
Female ticks need a blood meal before their eggs are laid. They use heat and movement to locate their food source. They can also detect the butyric acid that is given off by mammals.
The tick’s mouth-parts are far more frightening than any Transylvanian Count’s – they have a rod-like structure, with backward pointing serrations that enter their victim. Yeowch. In addition to an anti-coagulant, the saliva contains a cement-like substance that secures the tick in place while it takes its fill. Which can be a while since eating continues for weeks and the tick’s body weight increases 200-600 times.
lamprey vamps
The lamprey vamp is the aquatic form of a vampire – they feed on the blood of fish. They have horny teeth in within a circular sucker that attaches to the skin of their prey. Their rasping tongue then files away the skin of their victim so it can suck the blood and other bodily fluids out…
bat vamps
Vampire bats use echo-location to locate their prey. This involves emitting ultrasound waves that bounce off objects and then back to the bat. Just like radar, the longer it takes for the wave to get back the further away the object. Once on its prey, heat sensors in the nose enable vampire bats to locate a vein close to the surface of the skin. Bites are normally on the foot or ankle, although chickens tend to get it in the back of the neck.
Out of all the blood sucking creatures a vampire based on a bat would in fact probably be the least frightening. For a start, their teeth are enlarged and razor sharp, which would make a Hollywood vampire appear to have buck-teeth – not quite so scary. Having bitten into the flesh of an animal while it sleeps, the bat puts its tongue into the wound and rolls it round depositing saliva. This prevents clotting and acts as an anaesthetic, numbing the area and making it so painless that the victim may sleep through the whole ordeal…
A vampire bat can drink 1.5 times its own body weight in blood. Blood is around 80% water, so a meal leaves a bat incredibly bloated and urinating is the only way to un-bloat itself so it can fly. However, it’s important that they don’t loose too much water, because digesting the high protein blood produces creates a lot of urea (a waste product) and this needs to be flushed out by the kidney.
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