Vampires Some critters are out for blood.


Backyard Beast It’s evening. A vampire fl ies over a sleeping dog. It feels the dog’s body heat. It smells the dog’s breath. T e vampire lands on the dog. It


slips its mouthparts into dog’s skin. T en it slurps up the dog’s blood. In seconds, the vampire’s belly swells and turns red. T en it fl ies off . T is vampire is a female mosquito.


She sips nectar most of the time. Now, though, she needs blood. She’s making eggs. T e rich blood will help her eggs grow.


a mosquito with a belly full of blood


Got Blood? T ere’s another kind of vampire that lives in a cave. It’s a vampire bat. At night, the bat fl ies from its


cave. It lands on the ground. It quietly crawls toward some sleeping penguins. T e penguins don’t wake up. T e bat then squeezes under a penguin chick. T e bat bites the chick. Two sharp


fangs sink in. Blood trickles out. T e bat laps it up with its tongue. It swallows its weight in blood. A vampire bat drinks blood to


survive. It’s the only mammal that lives on blood.


Swimming with Vampires A vampire lives in the ocean, too. Its body is blood red. Its eyes look like blue marbles. T in skin fl utters between its eight arms. Hundreds of spikes stick out from each arm. T is vampire squid is not a


bloodsucker, though. It doesn’t eat live animals at all. It gathers bits of dead animals. It glues the bits together with goo. T en it eats the gooey food.


6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24