The first film about species destined to be a vampire squirrel

Scientists first filmed a film about local legend squirrels as a vampire-like predator.

The first video about a rare vampire squirrel

Cnet said that humans rarely observed vampire squirrels. Previously, scientists only obtained a few fleeting images of this mysterious animal. Science Magazine video was recorded in mid-July 2015, the first precious film about vampire squirrel in nature.

Researchers from the University of Michigan, USA and Victoria University, New Zealand obtained footage from a camera located in Gunung Palung National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, during the implementation of ecological studies here. . The video is only 15 seconds long but shows quite clearly the big squirrel-tailed squirrel squirming on the forest carpet.

Vampire squirrel.(Photo: Twitter).

Vampire squirrel is the nickname of a rodent endemic on Borneo island , in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, scientific name is Rheithrosciurus macrotis . The outstanding feature of this animal is the large ruffled tail. In 2014, a study published in the Asian Biodiversity magazine estimated vampire squirrel tails greater than 30% of its body mass, making it "one of the mammals with differences. tail size compared to the largest body ".

Not only that, the local legends also covered a veil of mystery to vampire squirrels. People living on Borneo believe that vampire squirts defeat their prey by sucking blood like vampires. They hunt the forest by waiting on the lower branches, jumping on the deer's back and biting into the neck vein to suck blood. After that, the vampire squirrel will poke the deer to eat the stomach, liver and heart.

So far, this seems to be a local legend. There is no convincing scientific evidence that squirrels have the ability to perform the behavior of such a terrifying predator.