 The three species of actual vampire bats are all endemic to Latin America , and there is no evidence to suggest that they had any Old World relatives within human memory . It is therefore impossible that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the vampire bat . The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa ; the Oxford English Dictionary records their folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774 . Although the vampire bat 's bite is usually not harmful to a person , the bat has been known to actively feed on humans and large prey such as cattle and often leave the trademark , two @-@ prong bite mark on its victim 's skin . 
