The Common Vampire Bat
Photo credit: Acatenazzi
"Hello, class. This is Desdemona, and she is a common vampire bat. But please don't be alarmed. I made sure she ate well last night, so she won't be biting any of you here today.
"Out of over 1,300 types of bats, only three feed on blood— Um, no, Gallus, a 'Flutterbat' is not one of them. Only one of those has ever existed, and I didn't drink anycreature's blood... I think.
"Despite being called 'vampires', the vampire fruit bats that I helped Applejack with do not feed on blood. Besides the common vampire bat, the other two blood-drinking bats are the white-winged and hairy-legged vampire bats. Those two prefer to drink the blood of birds. Common vampire bats, however, usually drink from large, plant-eating mammals like cattle and, well, ponies. But they aren't picky, and may feed on blood from just about anycreature, including chickens, sea lions, penguins, and even snakes.
"Like most other bats, vampire bats use a system called echolocation to find their way around in the dark. They make high-pitched calls that echo off objects ahead of them, allowing them to identify and avoid obstacles.
"Once they have found an animal to drink from, a common vampire bat will land on the ground nearby. Most bats aren't very good at walking, so they don't like being on the ground. Common vampire bats, however, are great walkers, runners, and jumpers, as Desdemona is happy to demonstrate.
"Walking like this, a hungry vampire bat will quietly approach their target, as Desdemona is doing to me right now— No, Desdemona. I'm sorry, but you already had enough last night. Vampire bats can detect heat with their noses, which helps them find parts of the body where blood is flowing just underneath the skin—right behind a hoof, for example.
"Next, the vampire bat will use their sharp teeth to clip off any hair in the way, and then make a cut so small and shallow that a sleeping animal probably won't even feel it. They may feed from this cut for up to half an hour. Vampire bats don't suck blood exactly, they instead lick it up with their tongue as it flows. Their saliva prevents the blood from clotting as they drink.
"Blood is not very nutritious, so vampire bats need a lot of it to survive. They can drink more than two-thirds of their body weight's worth of blood in one night. However, they also need to stay light enough to fly back to their homes afterward, which means that they have to, um, pee almost constantly while they are feeding.
"In fact, blood is so low in nutrients that a vampire bat is in danger of starving to death in less than two days if they are unable to find anything to eat. What does a poor vampire bat do if they go hungry for a night? They get some help from their friends!
"During the day, vampire bats gather in dark places like caves and tree hollows. These colonies can include up to hundreds of bats. A vampire bat who hasn't been able to find enough to eat will ask for food from another in their colony who has. If the other bat agrees to help, they will spit up some of the blood they have eaten for the starving bat.
"This is a common way for vampire bats to make friends. The same bats will often sleep together, groom each other, and share food with one another. If a bat has shared food with another in the past, the other bat will be more likely to help them in return if they ever need food themselves.
"Vampire bats would have a hard time surviving if they didn't have these friendships. The poor nutritional value of blood affects how long they need to care for their babies, too. Most small bats only live off their mother's milk for about two weeks, but vampire bats may continue to nurse for up to nine months.
"Although they need to drink a lot of blood, vampire bats don't take nearly enough to seriously hurt a creature of our size. However, they can still pose a danger to ponies by spreading diseases like rabies.
"You probably won't encounter vampire bats throughout much of Equestria though. Because their diet contains so little fat, vampire bats cannot live anywhere that is too cold. And because of how often they need to pee, they also cannot live anywhere that is too dry.
"But if you do live someplace where vampire bats are found, you may want to sleep with your windows shut so they won't come feed from you during the night. And it's a good idea to keep your shots up to date, so you won't get sick if you do get bitten.
"Thank you, Desdemona, for staying up so long past your bedtime to help me with this class. I think it's time you got some rest. Have a lovely day, everycreature, and stay kind to each other. Just like the vampire bat."
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I am surprised that there was no mention of Vampire Fruit Bats even though you did mention Flutterbat. I know that they aren’t the focus of the lesson, but you’d think that since Flutterbat was mentioned and vampire fruit bats are a local spicies comparing and contrasting would be educational.
10117128
) But you're right, it would have made sense to have at least mentioned them directly, if only to say that they're different from blood-drinking vampire bats. In fact, I might well edit in a sentence saying just that right now!
I tend to de-emphasize the more fantastical elements of the series in this fic, since it's mainly a thinly-veiled excuse for me to infodump about real-world animals. (The reader is probably a really unlucky student who happens to miss all the lectures on "mythological" creatures.
Some world-building that walks the line you mentioned here 10117532 since it is the real species and real disease, just with fantasy medicine and/or animal-handling options.
Rabies is Serious Business in real life. The vaccine isn't trivially easy to get as a preventive thing for a human (I've tried), and I believe the post-bite, but pre-symptomatic treatment is expensive. The only even ATTEMPT at a post-symptomatic cure I've heard of is a medically induced coma. Don't know if it worked. Other than that once you show symptoms it is a death sentence I think.
Thus, in Equestria, I would think that, depending on just how rare "I can talk to bats (and maybe other things)." is that getting them the shots*, and/or feeding them mostly on blood from hospitals that is barely too old to be injected would be reasonable precautions. A day or two is probably enough of a buffer if a disaster drops the supply. Pegasi are fast to send the message and get the delivery, and, failing that, Ponies are helpful to each other so an emergency blood drive would likely get a good response even if half of it were earmarked specifically for the bats.
*We do it for pets...
Or maybe they just have better vaccine and cure options?
10118581
There are, of course, elements of worldbuilding that I cannot ignore while adapting real species as inhabitants of the MLP universe. (Not that I don't appreciate the challenge—I wouldn't have written this fic otherwise.) So I simply made the assumption that Equestria has more accessible preventative measures for the disease, which seemed reasonable seeing as most of the sapient population is among the vampire bats' preferred prey, no less. But I can see things working your way, too.
10118610
the true answer is, of course, magic
10143781
For this setting, that's an explanation I can accept.