Vampire Bat Run. different from the running of four-legged animals
Bats float in the air with ease, but once it's about walking they can only drag themselves along the ground in a clumsy motion. One of the exceptions is a vampire bat, endowed with the ability to walk which allows it to sneak up on a sleeping prey - a cow or a chicken, for example - to pierce a small slit in its flesh and swallow its blood. The common vampire, common in Central America and South America, is also endowed with the ability to move faster on the ground. However, while in the past scientists defined its movement as hopping, researchers from Cornell University now believe that the vampire bat is actually a sprinter.
"They have to be able to walk safely so they can get close to the animals they feed on," says Daniel Riskin, a veterinary student at Cornell University. "But we had no idea that they also knew how to do this trick." "This trick" means actual galloping ability, which by definition includes a phase where the animal does not touch the ground.
Riskin and his supervisor, Dr. John Hermanson, videotaped vampire bats in Trinidad on a special treadmill. When they increased the speed of the treadmill, at a certain moment the bats went from walking to running. This run, the researchers write in the journal "Nature", is different from that Characteristic of four-legged animals, bats propel themselves forward with the help of their long forearms, while bending their fingers so that the wrists Touching the ground, they actually run on the tips of their wings.
The running ability of vampire bats may have evolved recently, due to their need to adapt to their unique eating habits. "One of the big mysteries is the question of what they were fed before the cattle and chickens were brought to Central and South America," Riskin said. It seems that in the past their prey was different - small and agile animals. "Cows aren't particularly difficult to deal with," explained Riskin, "but if you're a vampire bat and you're feeding on a small, nimble animal, and it suddenly wakes up and starts running away, it definitely helps if you can run after it."
Henry Fountain, New York Times
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