Vampire bats' blood diet leads to loss of bitter taste

By Zoe GoughReporter, BBC Nature

Vampire bats' strict blood diet has made them lose much of their ability to taste bitter flavours, a study has found.

Bitter taste acts as a natural defence against eating poisonous foods and was thought to be indispensable in animals.

Researchers say the bats' special diet and use of smell, echolocation and heat could have made taste less important.

Their work shows poor bitter taste is more widespread in animals than previously thought.

The findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Toxins typically taste bitter to animals but bottlenose dolphins and some whales have been shown to have reduced bitter taste, probably because they swallow their food whole, making taste unnecessary.

Vampire bats are the only mammals to feed solely on blood meaning they are unlikely to encounter toxic foods in the wild. The research team wanted to find out if that had left them with a lack of bitter taste.

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