Last night, high on cold medicine, I was researching vampire bats online. I love bats, period, and vampire bats definitely have some unique qualities apart from the whole sanguivorous diet. Did you know they're the only bats that can run and jump? They're also very social, and will regurgitate blood to help save unrelated blood-buddies from starvation.
Best of all, their saliva contains extremely powerful anticoagulants (the better to keep the cow blood flowing as they feed). A blood-thinning drug has been derived from their saliva, and it's been delightfully named Draculin (as has the anticoagulant factor in the wild).
Update: Hee hee hee hee. Comment from Triticale:
If, as legend has it, being bitten by a vampire bat causes one to turn into a vampire, then would would happen to a person bitten by a fruit bat?Posted by kswygert at March 17, 2005 10:52 AM
