Lately it seems I have been photographing a lot of faces. Here are a few of my recent favorites.
These first couple are from a recent trip to Yellowstone, where I shot bighorn sheep and bison.
Next we have some bat face images that I made recently. This first image is of the aptly named leaf-nosed bat.
Next is a shot of a vampire bat, in the standard mouth open, showing those scary teeth pose. While it may look as if the teeth are hollow (in order to suck your blood). Vampire bats really only use their razor sharp teeth to make a painless incision (almost never on the neck). Once this incision is made the bat feeds by lapping up the blood with its tongue. As the bat laps up the blood it is also treating the wound with an anticoagulant called draculin which is found in vampire bat’s saliva. This anticoagulant keeps the blood flowing by preventing clotting, allowing the bat more time to feed. The bat’s leaf-shaped nose has evolved to be able to detect where the blood is flowing closest to the skin on it’s prey, this helps the bat decide where best to bite.
