Vampire Bats Caught Preying on Penguin Chicks (Video)

Vampire bats aren't the most beloved creatures of the animal kingdom--especially when they prey on penguin chicks. Documentary makers have actually filmed these bats on the outskirts of the Atacama Desert in southern Peru "attacking" penguins during the nighttime hours.

Featured on the BBC One series, "Penguins: Spy in the huddle," the clip shows vampire bats dive bombing the Humboldt penguins before picking out a particularly tasty morsel. They land and then crawl over to a penguin. More often than not, though, they're quickly batted away by a protective parent.

The behavior had never been recorded before now, despite anecdotal evidence of the bats preying on the penguins. The penguins themselves are tropical, breeding in coastal South America where they hunt fish in the cold waters of an ocean current. They don't only have vampire bats to worry about, though. They also must contend with the colony of 20,000 predatory sea lions that also live nearby.

The penguins live in dark caves on the seashore. In order to capture the bat's behavior, producer Matthew Gordon and Phillip Dalton and cameraman Jim Clare used infrared equipment to monitor exactly what was happening. While they were scanning the colony, they noticed that the penguins were reacting strangely to something on the ground. After several hours, the film crew finally caught a vampire bat on camera, darting around the penguins' feet.

Vampire bats feed entirely on blood licked from warm-blooded prey. They sleep during the day in colonies that range from 100 to 1,000 individuals. In one year alone, a colony of 100 bats can drink the blood of 25 cows. They usually target sleeping animals, landing near them and then crawling toward them before making a small incision in the animals' skin with their teeth. Their spit acts as an anticoagulant as they then lick up their prey's blood. While they don't remove enough blood to harm the host, their bites can cause nasty infections and disease.

The BBC One series featuring the penguins and vampire bats will continue at 4:00 p.m. EST today.

Want to see the bat behavior for yourself? Check it out on the video here.