ABSTRACT
Vampires remained scientifically neglected until one, the common vampire, Desmodus rotundus, was implicated in a rabies outbreak in Trinidad in the 1930s. A flurry of study confirmed that this bat was the principal vector, leading to intensive research, mostly aimed at control. Meanwhile, widespread anti-vampire campaigns included dynamiting, poisoning, and burning of bat roosts in general. Widespread misapplication of vampire control continues, as illustrated by responses to a rabies outbreak in Central America. The common vampire is generally scarce away from man and his livestock. The prosperity of vampires is at least in part a consequence of their ability to rear young in a wide variety of roosting sites, occupied by small, often easily unnoticed colonies of fewer than a hundred individuals. Removed from our prejudice, even the common vampire is a remarkably altruistic and sophisticated animal. The bird-feeding vampires, Diaemus youngi and Diphylla ecaudata, for similar reasons, are themselves of extraordinary scientific interest but remain largely unstudied.
