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posted by hubie on Friday June 17 2022, @08:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the bats-in-my-belfry dept.

Bats are one of the most misunderstood mammals:

By turns admired and reviled, bats are one of the most mysterious mammals alive. Their nocturnal habits and unique adaptations mean that bat biology still holds many secrets. It is possible that bats may hold the key to understanding diabetes.

When the pandemic started in 2020 and speculation began that a notorious zoonotic "spillover" appeared to have triggered it all, one specific animal was identified almost immediately as a threat to humans—the bat. People feared and, in some cases, even killed them in a futile attempt to stop the virus from spreading.

[...] The BABE project analyzes how bats and other predators help keep the world green. And with over 1,450 species and making up 20% of the mammals on our planet, bats constitute one of the most diverse and geographically dispersed species. As such, they play a valuable role in the global ecosystem by pollinating crops and maintaining plant diversity.

[...] What we do know is that bats are great at gobbling up insects and other arthropods. Sivault and her team look at what and how much the individual species eat. For now, findings have indicated the difference in the strength of arthropod control by bats along different latitudes.

[...] Not many people know it but, bats are helping us to study and prevent human diseases such as diabetes. Some species of the winged mammalian possess genes that allow them to survive on a super-sweet diet of nectar. What this teaches us about diabetes in humans is part of the research being conducted by the Chiroglu project.

[...] "Our research is curiosity-driven, but it has potentially important implications for humans," said Stephen Rossiter, professor of Molecular Ecology and Evolution at Queen Mary University of London. "We, like lab animals, develop diabetes if we live on sugar rich diets. Nectar-feeding bats appear to have evolved unique changes in the metabolic enzymes that might allow them to avoid diabetes and other metabolic diseases."

[...] To successfully protect bats also means getting the public on board. Bats often reside in and breed in buildings during the summer, so they are often seen as pests although in fact they keep the mosquitoes at bay in the surroundings. "It is important to make sure the public understands that coexistence, and more importantly, even cohabitation is possible with bats and facilitates the protection of these animals," said Lilley.


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    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 19 2022, @09:18AM (#1254363)

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