Homes and Property | Home PageVampire bats kill 13Abul Taher|Metro13 April 2012They are legendary figures of death and evil. But now vampire bats - which normally have an unfair reputation for attacking humans - have killed at least 13 people on an Amazon river island through an outbreak of rabies.A boy of ten, Mailson Moura de Souza, was the first to lose his life about three weeks ago. His father said: 'My son and my relatives have been finished by this disease. I'm afraid the rest of my family will die as well.'About 300 people on Portel Island, 1,500 miles north-east of Rio de Janeiro, have been bitten by the thumbsized bats, but most were vaccinated against rabies.Scientists suspect the attacks are linked to a change in the bats' migration pattern caused by deforestation.Vampire bats normally feed on the blood of large birds and sleeping cattle.MORE ABOUTRio De JaneiroScientistsVaccines