Now, due to the rather large number (1,000) of bat species alive in this world, one must wonder, where does the vampire bat fit into this? Well, to explain this, we shall start off with the basics. Firstly, it must be known that there are two main groups of bats; megabats and microbats. Megabats ( megachiroptera) are known as fruit bats or flying foxes. Megabats live in select portions of the world. They live only in the hottest portions of Africa, Australia, and in Southeast Asia. The body of a megabat can grow up to two feet long! Their wingspan can reach u to 6 feet long! The largest megabat on earth is the pteroppus or flying foxes.There are sixty five known species of flying fox! Megabats use their large eyes to navigate and find food. During they day they often roost communally in trees.

Microbats ( microchiroptera), as their name implies, are generally much smaller than megabats. Most microbats feed on insects, and microbats typically hunt using echolocation. Most bats in the world fall into this category. Micros usually roost in large caves, tunnels, or old mine shafts. Microbats can be very small, in fact it takes about 100 pipistrelle bats to weigh 1 pound. More amazing than that, it takes only 1 square foot to house a cluster of three hundred Mexican Freetail bats.

So where does the vampire bat fit into all of this? Well, the vampire bat is a microbat, and it does indeed use echolocation to search for food. Now, as far as species goes, there certainly aren’t 65species of vampire bats. There are only three known species; the Common Vampire bat, the White winged Vampire bat, and the hairy legged vampire bat. Scientists know relatively little about these bats, although the common vampire bat is much more widespread, and more is known about it.