It is hard to guess what a Common vampire bat weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) on average weights 33 grams (0.07 lbs).
The Common vampire bat is from the family Phyllostomidae (genus: Desmodus). It is usually born with about 6 grams (0.01 lbs). They can live for up to 19.5 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 7.8 cm (0′ 4″). On average, Common vampire bats can have babies 1 times per year with a litter size of 1.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) is a small, leaf-nosed bat native to the Latin america. It is one of three extant species of vampire bat, the other two being the hairy-legged and the white-winged vampire bats. The common vampire bat practices hematophagy, mainly feeding on the blood of livestock. The bat usually approaches its prey at night while they are sleeping. It then uses its razor-sharp teeth to cut open the skin of its hosts and lap up their blood with its long tongue.The species is highly polygynous, and dominant adult males defend groups of females. It is one of the most social of bat species with a number of cooperative behaviors such as social grooming and food sharing. Because it feeds on livestock and is a carrier of rabies, the common vampire bat is considered a pest. Its conservation status is categorized as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because of “its wide distribution, presumed large population tolerance of a degree of habitat modification, and because it is unlikely to be declining at nearly the rate required to qualify for listing in a threatened category.”
Animals of the same family as a Common vampire bat
We found other animals of the Phyllostomidae family:
- Little white-shouldered bat with a weight of 10 grams
- Visored bat with a weight of 16 grams
- Tomes’s sword-nosed bat with a weight of 15 grams
- Short-headed broad-nosed bat with a weight of 14 grams
- Leach’s single leaf bat with a weight of 8 grams
- Little big-eared bat with a weight of 6 grams
- Gervais’s fruit-eating bat with a weight of 12 grams
- Lesser long-tongued bat with a weight of 8 grams
- Pygmy round-eared bat with a weight of 9 grams
- Gray long-tongued bat with a weight of 10 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Common vampire bat
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Desmodus rotundus:
- Smith’s vole bringing 34 grams to the scale
- Merriam’s kangaroo rat bringing 37 grams to the scale
- Dark fruit-eating bat bringing 35 grams to the scale
- Brazilian slender opossum bringing 38 grams to the scale
- Spinifex hopping mouse bringing 32 grams to the scale
- Abrothrix lanosus bringing 27 grams to the scale
- Himalayan water shrew bringing 33 grams to the scale
- Abrothrix longipilis bringing 38 grams to the scale
- Olive montane mouse bringing 37 grams to the scale
- Rufous-bellied bolo mouse bringing 32 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Common vampire bat
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Common vampire bat:
- Forrest’s mouse with a size of 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Mediterranean water shrew with a size of 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Smith’s shrew with a size of 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Little yellow-shouldered bat with a size of 6.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Nelson’s pocket mouse with a size of 7.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Vagrant shrew with a size of 6.4 cm (0′ 3″)
- False canyon mouse with a size of 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Canyon mouse with a size of 8.2 cm (0′ 4″)
- Marsh shrew with a size of 8.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- White-eared pocket mouse with a size of 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Common vampire bat
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Common vampire bat:
- Jamaican fruit bat
- Peters’s trumpet-eared bat
- Rodrigues flying fox
- Antarctic fur seal
- Philippine pygmy squirrel
- Little red brocket
- Hispaniolan hutia
- Black-flanked rock-wallaby
- Eastern rock elephant shrew
- Woolly horseshoe bat
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Common vampire bat
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Common vampire bat:
- African brush-tailed porcupine with an average maximal age of 22.83 years
- Lesser mouse-eared bat with an average maximal age of 19.75 years
- Proboscis monkey with an average maximal age of 21 years
- Cotton-top tamarin with an average maximal age of 23.08 years
- Bongo (antelope) with an average maximal age of 19.42 years
- Gray-bellied night monkey with an average maximal age of 18 years
- Pallas’s squirrel with an average maximal age of 16.08 years
- Big brown bat with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Silvery marmoset with an average maximal age of 16.75 years
- Mountain goat with an average maximal age of 19.17 years