News Animals

Putting vampire bats on treadmills reveals an unusual metabolism

Blood-feeding bats burn more amino acids during exercise, unlike carbs or fats other mammals use

A vampire bat is mid-stride in a run on a treadmill, with its hind limbs both down and its front limbs in mid-air. The background of the treadmill is black and white stripes.

A vampire bat working out on a bat-friendly treadmill helped scientists figure out the quirks of digesting high-blood diets.

Price Sewell

By Susan Milius

Vampire bats have become such specialized bloodsuckers that they metabolize their food more like some blood-feeding flies than like other known mammals, a new experiment shows.

The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) doesn’t stick to flying for moving around.