ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that how the distribution and kind of social behavior displayed in the wild by common vampire bats, Desmodus rotundus, can be understood as a consequence of their specialized diet and their social organization. The few cases of male sharing may represent paternal behavior or bartering in which a male provides food to gain access to mating opportunities. The function of social grooming appears to be related to food sharing. Grooming rates between pairs of bats which were not mothers and offspring correlated significantly and independently with both relatedness and roost association. Turner suggested that resident vampire bats at La Pacifica moved between roosts to minimize the distance between the roost and preferred prey. The amount of blood exchanged during a food sharing session appears related to the needs of the recipient rather than any relationship, such as relatedness, roost association, sex, or age, between the participants.
