Pale Hose Jon Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Vampire Bats Kill 13 People in Brazil Fri Apr 2, 6:01 PM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo! RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Rabies-carrying vampire bats killed at least 13 people in a remote Amazon town in Brazil's northern state of Para last month, authorities said on Friday. The state health care department said the thumb-sized creatures had attacked about 300 people -- an unusually high number -- since March 2 in the riverside Portel area, next to the world's biggest estuarine archipelago of Marajo. "All the deceased had a history of recent bat attacks and six of them had confirmed human rabies from bat bites," a department spokeswoman said. Other bite victims received vaccines and other anti-rabies treatment after March 19, when authorities became aware of the problem. The spokeswoman said government scientists suspect the attacks are linked to a change in the bats' migration pattern caused by deforestation. "There is no guarantee that we won't have more cases," she added. The most recent death occurred last weekend. Vampire bats normally feed on the blood of large birds and sleeping cattle, lapping it from cuts they make with their teeth. They often transmit rabies to cattle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldmember Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Tizzle Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Thumb sized? Picture on CNN looks to be a hell of a lot bigger than a thumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Somebody call courtney cox's husband... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israel4ever Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Ouch!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSteve Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Thumb sized? Picture on CNN looks to be a hell of a lot bigger than a thumb. Yeah, just wait til they turn into dracula too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Thumb sized? Picture on CNN looks to be a hell of a lot bigger than a thumb. Yep, Desmodus rotundus, the vampire bat is a little one, the body is about the size of an adult thumb, but the wingspan makes it a lot larger. I have not tracked down the CNN story, but that picture looks like a little brown bat or an Indiana bat (Myotis sp.), and not a vampire bat. If it's a National Parks Service file photo it is probably not a South American species, so it may have been misidentified. A lot of bat species can be rabies vectors but the insect eaters only rarely bite people and only then when they've been caught and manhandled. The fact that vamps are blood drinkers (sanguinivores for you scrabble players) makes them the most likely to transmit the disease. Bats rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 Somebody call courtney cox's husband... Wasn't that a spider movie? Holy Geekdom Batman! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldmember Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 Yep, Desmodus rotundus, the vampire bat is a little one, the body is about the size of an adult thumb... what if you have a big thumb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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