What mammal can detect infrared radiation?

The mammal that can detect infrared radiation is the vampire bat, especially the common vampire bat. Specialized heat-sensitive receptors help it locate warm, blood-rich areas on a host's skin.

The common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, feeds on the blood of mammals. Its infrared sensitivity is concentrated around the nose leaf and upper lip, where thermoreceptors detect heat radiating from the body. This helps the bat identify places where blood vessels run close to the surface, making feeding more efficient in darkness.

Researchers have linked this ability to a specialized version of the TRPV1 temperature-sensitive channel. In vampire bats, the channel can respond at roughly 30 °C, considerably lower than the activation temperature associated with ordinary heat-pain detection. The bat is sensing thermal radiation as a heat cue, not forming a detailed infrared image like a camera.

Pit vipers and some boas are famous infrared-sensing animals, but they are reptiles. The vampire bat is notable because it is a mammal with a comparable heat-detection adaptation. There are three living vampire bat species, although most research has focused on Desmodus rotundus.