Vampire Bats

Here's something you probably didn't know about bats: the common vampire bat has a natural knife sharpener in its mouth to keep its teeth sharp enough to pierce skin. Cool, huh? Vampire bats are the only mammals that can live solely off the blood of their victims (insects are another story), and they have developed adaptations that make them really good at it, like saliva with anticoagulants in it. It might have rabies virus in it, too, but that doesn't help or bother the bat at all.

The good news is that vampire bats only take a small amount of blood relative to the size of the victim, which is usually livestock, and they learn to do it without being noticed. That's all fine and good until your pig comes down with rabies. Vampire bats are scary enough without having to look at them, so this TED-Ed lesson animates these bats as much cuter than they actually are.