Cardcaptor Takato's Fabulous Anime & Animation Blog

it’s a shame more vampire media doesn’t pull from vampire bat behavior because they’re such sweeties. they can only survive their incredibly specialized diet because bats will share blood with colony members that didn’t find a meal! there’s evidence that suggests the donors sometimes initiate this behavior themselves by approaching hungry bats! the colonies are mostly harems of females with a few males but they’ve been observed letting unrelated males in when it gets cold so they can all stay warm! cute little social critters!

#bats are so fucking delightful #most insectivorous bats that make it to adulthood live long enough to meet five generations of descendants #and if they're female they'll nurse their great-great grandchildren because they're too arthritic to fly #and their descendants and friends and everyone else in the colony will bring them food #The oldest bats of large colonies are also the first to emerge from the roost at dusk #all the bats are in flight but circling near the exit #because there's hawks and owls and snakes and all kinds of predators waiting for them #once everyone is airborne the eldest bats lead that charge and draw the attention of all the preds #because bats are agile as hell and in groups they'll assault any pred that charges the flight #so the preds really only have one shot at a batsnack #It's not clear whether the eldest bats go first because they're the most experienced and have the best odds or surviving #or if they're taking that risk on behalf of their descendants #like the senior citizens that went into Fukushima rather than let someone still raising kids risk getting cancer #bats are our closest relatives after primates and I can't help but see the relation in the ways we conduct ourselves (via @gallusrostromegalus)