flying dracula
by Mike Fainzilber
bleeding to run
running to bleed
This is a haiku about the stuff of nightmares – vampire bats. As we know, vampire bats feed on blood, and blood is low in carbohydrates and lipids that are the typical fuel for activities that require high energy. Flight is highly costly in energy, so how can it be fueled by blood alone? Certain blood-sucking insects can fuel their flight by direct metabolism of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) in their blood meals, but this metabolic specialization was known only in very few insect species.
A team of biologists traveled from the University of Toronto to Belize to find out if vampire bats can do the same. The researchers took advantage of the fact that vampire bats are exceptionally good runners, and they use this to approach their prey along the ground. Bats were fed cow blood with labeled amino acids and the researchers then placed them on treadmills, monitoring tracer release in the bat’s breath as they ran on the treadmill.
The experiments clearly showed that vampire bats use amino acids as their main fuel source while running. Since running is a major hunting mode for this species, they literally bleed prey to run, and run to bleed…
Further reading:
‘Vampire bats rapidly fuel running with essential or non-essential amino acids from a blood meal’, 2024, Rossi, G.S. & Welch, K.C., Biology Letters, available: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0453
‘How blood-sucking vampire bats get their energy’, 2024, The Economist, available: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/11/06/how-blood-sucking-vampire-bats-get-their-energy
Author bio:
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on X/Twitter @MFainzilber or on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social
Read more sciku by Mike: ‘The deepest shade’, ‘Jellyfish’, and ‘In the Deep’.