VAMPIRE bats have turned out to be the sprinters of the bat world. Daniel Riskin and John Hermanson of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, wanted to understand how vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) walked, so they rigged up a special bat treadmill and videotaped their movements. As they turned up the speed, the bats kept pace. Then, to the researchers鈥� surprise, the animals broke into a run.
鈥淭here was a definite change in gait,鈥� says Riskin. The bats clocked in at 1.2 metres per second, and Riskin reckons they could have gone even faster if the treadmill had been larger. It is the first account of any bat running (Nature, vol 434, p 292). Most bats are creatures of the sky and can barely scuffle along the ground.
Vampire bats鈥� agility could be partly due to their trick of tucking their wings under their forearms, but it cannot be explained by anatomy alone. The tiny blood-lickers may have evolved the ability in order to escape from predators or catch up with prey, the researchers speculate.
Advertisement
