Common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) feeding on the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) and the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus)

Abstract

There has been an increase in the number of studies on the diet of common vampire bats following the widespread use of modern camera traps by field researchers. In this study, we report evidence of common vampire bats feeding on two species of xenarthrans: a juvenile giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla Linnaeus, 1758) being carried on its mother’s back in the southern Pantanal, and a giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus Kerr, 1792) in the Atlantic rainforest of Minas Gerais state. The variety of species that Desmodus rotundus (E. Geoffroy, 1810) feeds on may favor the transmission of microorganisms in populations of wild and domestic mammals.