Brazilian Vampire Bats Have Started Feeding on Humans and, Well, That Sucks

As if there weren’t enough to worry about this year, vampire bats, the bats with the scariest name in the animal kingdom, have developed a taste for human blood. Yes, human blood. If you’re reading this and are human, that should rock you to your core.

According to a report from New Scientist, researchers in Brazil found traces of human blood in vampire bats’ feces. They report:

“Enrico Bernard from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and his team analysed 70 faeces samples from a colony of hairy-legged vampire bats, D. ecaudata, living in Catimbau National Park in north-east Brazil.

“They found that three samples out of the 15 they managed to get DNA from had traces of blood from humans. ‘We were quite surprised,” says Bernard. “This species isn’t adapted to feed on the blood of mammals.’”

via Shutter

The article goes on to say that vampire bats usually feed on birds, but due to human encroachment, they may have started moving on to most dangerous game… HUMAN. 

Well, 2017 is off to a great start.