When most individuals ask a couple of vampire, they consider a tall, pale creature with fangs and a cloak. But were the folklore creatures inspired by real features seen within the animal kingdom? From avoiding sunlight to wearing a cloak, listed here are five classic vampire traits that exist within the natural world.
1. Drinking blood
The basic feature of a vampire is that it feeds on blood. Although many ectoparasites corresponding to mosquitoes and Leeches drink blood tooThe vampire bat is the one truly hematopoietic mammal species (it feeds only on blood).
Vampire bats they hunt warm-blooded animals like livestock by locating blood hotspots using built-in infrared heat sensors, and even use a protein called “draculina” to maintain its prey's blood flowing.
However, they have to feed every two days to survive, and finding prey regularly is a challenge. Fortunately, vampire bats live in communal roosts, in order that they have evolved a mechanism sharing food in this manner, they return blood to ravenous people. This is commonly done on a tit-for-tat basis, so those that benefited in this manner will later return the favor by donating to the bats that helped them.
2. Immortality
Although vampires are sometimes considered immortal, there are few animals that possess the identical characteristics. Animals like whales and Sharks can live for over 200 yearsand tardigrades (tiny water-dwelling creatures) can exist in a state of suspended animation indefinitely – coming back to life when rehydrated.
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The immortal jellyfishnonetheless, he’s reborn multiple times. Like a caterpillar that begins life as an egg and develops right into a butterfly, a jellyfish begins life as an egg, develops right into a larva, grows right into a polyp, after which buds right into a jellyfish that, when fully mature, is just 4.5 mm long.
The jellyfish is “immortal” because it could actually change from a jellyfish back to a polyp under stress. This “trans-differentiation” – returning to a former form after which transforming back into the latter – can aid understanding repair and regeneration of damaged tissues.
Although most jellyfish eventually succumb to predators or disease, this jellyfish has the potential to regenerate indefinitely, making it virtually immortal.
3. Avoiding sunlight
Like many vampires, the animals often avoid light. These often include invertebrates that prefer to live in dark conditions, or nocturnal species which are adapted to feeding at night. However, there are several species which are hypersensitive to light and actively avoid it in any respect costs, including some cave dwellers who spend their lives in constant darkness.
Perhaps one in all the strangest creatures is naked mole rat, which lives in underground burrows in Africa. Like vampires, they’re pale, avoid sunlight, and are known for his or her longevity. They also lead a colonial lifestyle, much like ants and bees – employees forage for food, maintain a tunnel system and protect the nest of the breeding queen, similar to the vampire father.
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4. Heightened senses
Vampires are sometimes depicted with heightened senses corresponding to sight and hearing. But many animals have also developed super senses, far superior to those of humans and vampires.
For example, vampires appear to have a very keen sense of smell. This trait is reflected in animals corresponding to bears that may smell food from up to twenty-eight miles away.
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Although it is commonly claimed that sharks can smell a single drop of blood from a mile away, that is true exaggeration – it's more of a drop within the pool. Nevertheless, sharks have nostrils that give them a directional sense of smell, allowing them to pinpoint prey with incredible accuracy. Their nostrils have just one function: to detect odors. Perhaps undead vampires have such a formidable sense of smell because they don't must breathe either.
5. Morphing
Vampires also can tackle one other form, corresponding to a bat, often behind the veil of a cloak. Species corresponding to the mimic octopus are similarly capable of fixing shape to avoid a difficult situation. Unfortunately, they will't turn right into a bat and fly away, but that's principally what a caterpillar does when it transforms right into a butterfly and takes to the sky – although the method takes them weeks, not moments.
Like vampires that disappear in a puff of smoke, squids are also capable of manufacturing ink clouds – confusing predators and creating the illusion that they’ve disappeared.
But what concerning the coat? Nothing says a textbook vampire like a black heron. These birds create a cloak plumage around itself, making a shadow that permits birds to see prey within the water and creates a dark trap into which fish dive for canopy.
There are many animals with vampiric traits, so it is probably going that stories about vampires or mythical bloodsuckers corresponding to chupacabraare based partly on these characteristics.
They all have yet one more thing in common: anyone will be killed with a stake to the guts.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
