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The new species of bats were announced in a study published Wednesday in a special issue of ZooKeys, focusing on the pandemic.
Identifying individual bat species and understanding more about them is crucial in providing a basis for information related to the spread of diseases such as Covid-19.
Learning more about bats, both the benefits they offer and how they transmit and transmit disease to humans, is key to protecting bats and humans, the researchers said. Although much attention is currently being paid to bats as disease carriers, they also pollinate crops, disperse seeds, and eat insects like mosquitoes.
But bats are still largely mysterious to us. The researchers estimate that we have only identified 25% of all bat species in the past 15 years. They are difficult to locate and study, so we lack information about where they live, how they evolved, and their true role in the world around them.
“Bats are small, nocturnal and use high-frequency sounds and smells to identify their species to other bats,” said Bruce Patterson, lead author of the study and curator of Macarthur mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago, in an email. “Because we are large, daytime, and dependent on vision (and low-frequency sounds), we cannot read their signals very precisely. The actual diversity of bats has really opened up in the last 25 years with the sequence of DNA and ultrasonic recording technology that helps us recognize the signals that bats use. “
The new species of bats were largely discovered based on museum specimens that were collected in Africa over the past few decades.
Leaf-nosed bats live in Asia, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, but species in Africa have not been studied as much because the areas where they live are inaccessible. They get their name from unique skin flaps on their noses that act like radar to help them catch insects and target their signals to others.
The researchers used DNA to study the museum’s leaf-nosed bat specimens and realized that while some of them looked very similar to known species, they were genetically different.
“The most surprising thing to me about this study was that we couldn’t find much genetic support for long-recognized species, and we found important differences within what had been considered a single species,” said Patterson.
Preparation for possible virus vectors
The new species has yet to be named. And researchers want to continue their work by looking for patterns in their anatomy, echolocation calls, and the parasites they carry.
“None of these leaf-nosed bats carry a disease that is problematic today, but we don’t know if that will always be the case. And we don’t even know how many species exist,” said the Terry Demos study. Co-author and postdoctoral researcher at Patterson’s laboratory, in a statement.
“Leaf-nosed bats carry coronaviruses, not the strain that is affecting humans at the moment, but this is not the last time that a virus will be transmitted from a wild mammal to humans. If we have a better understanding of what what are these bats, I will be better prepared if that happens. “
Patterson agreed. “With Covid-19, we have a virus that is going crazy in the human population,” he said. “It originated from a horseshoe bat in China. There are 25 or 30 species of horseshoe bats in China, and no one can determine which one was involved. We owe it to ourselves to learn more about them and their families.”
Other viruses and human-contracted diseases have been associated with bats. Bats may carry viruses due to their social nature, rather than being dirty virus magnets.
“All organisms have viruses. The roses in your garden have viruses,” said Patterson. “We worry about viruses when it comes to flu and pandemics, but viruses are part of nature and have been as far away as we are. And many viruses are harmless. Because [bats] snuggling and caring for each other, it doesn’t take long for a pathogen to move from one end of the colony to the other. “
And bats can also fly, making them incredibly strong, probably making them disease carriers rather than prone to getting sick. Bats have a high metabolism, self-repairing DNA, and an abundant immune system.
“Flying is the most expensive way to move briskly. If you bat a bat, it looks like Mighty Mouse, they barely have guts, they’re all shoulders and chest muscles. They’re amazing athletes,” said Patterson.
The human factor
Humans come into contact with bats by destroying their habitats, hunting them and eating bat meat. Bat meat consumption occurs in Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Patterson said.
“Unless you try to look for bats, either to harass or kill them, it is very, very unlikely that they will infect you,” Demos said.
Bat guano, or poop, is considered an excellent fertilizer, so it is extracted from caves. Patterson said this can annoy the millions of bats in a single cave colony.
Bats can also ingest pesticides and environmental toxins when they eat hundreds of insects every night. And people “respond to viral fears” by deliberately targeting bat habitats, Patterson said.
Damaging bats will not slow disease, but a better understanding of bats will.
“These bats have a place in nature and perform essential ecological functions, and we cannot allow our terror of Covid to disarm natural ecological systems,” said Patterson.
Patterson hopes this moment of interest will lead to further research on bats, as well as a clearer picture of how the coronavirus jumped from bats to humans.
“In addition to its numerous services to humanity, we know that bats carry a substantial amount of virus,” said Patterson. “A species of bat can carry only those viruses to which it has been exposed, and only to the extent that its range limits. Therefore, understanding who is there and where it lives constitutes a roadmap for the ecological connections that are currently They elude us by finding out who was wearing SARS coV-2 in the wild. “
