PHOTOS: Terrifying 'vampire fish' falling from the sky in Alaska

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Creatures are called Arctic lamprey.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), in Fairbanks, received calls about scary-looking fish found in strange locations in early June 2015. The creatures are called arctic lamprey. (Photo: Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

A Value Village store found a live arctic lamprey in their parking lot and placed it in a bucket of water. Another resident called and said he found one on his lawn. (Photo: Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

Four lamprey were found on land as of the first week in June. Biologists believe seagulls are picking them out of the Chena River with their bills and then dropping the squirming critters while in flight. (Photo: Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

Arctic lampreys spawn in the Chena River; the jawless fish live in the mud underwater as juveniles for several years. CBS News reports adults clamp their mouths onto other fish, then use their teeth and tongues to rasp through its scales and skin to feed on its blood and fluids. (Photo: Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

However, many lifelong Alaskans have never seen one of these fascinating fish up close because their body shape and feeding habits make them difficult to catch. (Photo: Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

(Photo: Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

"Lamprey have a raspy tongue," Andrew Gryska, a Research Fish Biologist from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told CBS News. "They'll rasp away meat and flesh and blood from the fish they attach to." (Image: Randy Brown/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via CBS News)

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The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), in Fairbanks, received calls about scary-looking fish found in strange locations in early June 2015. The creatures are called arctic lamprey. (Photo: Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

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