Unlike most bat species, which tend to avoid the ground, bats vampire bats They are excellent runners and use their ability to stealthily attack their prey.
However, the diet based on consuming the blood of other animals does not provide the carbohydrates and fats that mammals usually burn to obtain enough energy for a race. Because vampire bats are the only mammals that feed on blood, scientists still needed to understand where the species got the energy it needed to run .
An article published in the journal Biology Letters in early November points out that, instead of burning carbohydrates or fats like other mammals, the vampire bat actually metabolizes the amino acids (molecules that form proteins) present in the blood of its victims.
To test this hypothesis, researchers in Canada fed bats the blood of cows from a local slaughterhouse enriched with high concentrations of amino acids. The vampire bats were then placed on treadmills to run for about 90 minutes.
When analyzing the expulsion of carbon dioxide from bats as they ran, the researchers came to the conclusion that the metabolization of amino acids corresponded to almost 60% of the energy that the animals used in running. This points to an almost instantaneous ability to metabolize amino acids in these bats, something unprecedented for mammals.
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This content was originally published in Scientists make discovery by putting vampire bats to run on a treadmill on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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