Vampire Bats (C/N)

The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) is a small, leaf-nosed bat native to the Americas, one of three extant species of vampire bat, with the other two being the hairy-legged and the white-winged vampire bats. These animals are the only parasitic mammals known, and they feed mainly on the blood of livestock, approaching its prey at night while they are sleeping, using its razor-sharp teeth to cut open the skin of its hosts and laps up the blood with its long tongue.

In The Lost World, mexican vampire bats are one of the subjects that Richard Levine sends Arby and Kelley to Xerox papers on at various Stanford libraries.