Vampires that grew sick of Dracula

The Child Who Never Grew

ICU vampires and anemia

We read with great interest the article by Fischer and colleagues in a recent issue of Critical Care [1]. The authors make compelling arguments about the different types of blood loss in inpatients and outpatients and describe potential solutions. We agree with the authors about this ‘vampirism’, which is of major importance in patient care. We add that another issue leading to excessive blood ...

Energetics and the Distribution of Vampires

-The weight fluctuations and rates of metabolism of vampires in the laboratory were examined in an attempt to describe the energy budget of vampires in the field. Their energy expenditure is limited by the size of the meal that can be transported in flight. A Desmodus of 42 grams would expend about 26 kilocalories per day, more than 90 per cent of which is committed directly to homeostasis and ...

Red-billed oxpeckers: vampires or tickbirds?

Many recent studies have shown that classic examples of mutualism are either far more complicated than originally believed, or that they are not mutualisms at all. Red-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) are just such an example of an ‘‘adaptive story.’’ These small birds feed almost exclusively on what they can glean from the skin of large African mammals. The relationship is obligate ...

Altruism among Simple and Smart Vampires

In this work we present a simulation study drawn upon a famous ethological example: food-sharing habit of vampire bats in Central America. A norm of reciprocity is introduced when agents are expected to exhibit a cooperative behavior under serious environmental strictures (infrequent but lethal food scarcity). We compare different agents’ architectures (with different levels of cognitive comple...