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>> ancient medical experts developed a lot of odd ideas about how you would cure rabies. they used to believe that one way to stop rabies from killing you was to take a hair from the tail of the rabid dog and insert it into the bite wound, and this is the origin of the phrase "hair of the dog" which we talk about as hangover treatment. >> then along came louis pasteur, he had been working on a vaccine for years and eventually tried to try on it a young boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog. the...

>> the adaptation. >> it doesnt appear that they get sick or very sick when they are carrying viruses that can be deadly in other people and animals. >> so could studying bat immunology help us, humans, create possible treatments to fight this current and future pandemic? what do you think is the greatest challenge, in terms of finding a treatment or cure? >> to my mind, the number of unknown viruses that are out there. i mean, we think there are about 1.7 million unknown viruses, of the type th...

Looking to bats to find clues on how to help humans fight coronaviruses, like covid-19. >> i think, in a way, there is actually a lot we can learn from bats. you know, this group of animals thats been around for millions of years. how can we look at their history with viruses and take that knowledge, and think about therapeutics and treatments, for ourselves? >> what is it about bats that allows some of them to host these viruses, without showing any illness? >> thats the question that cara broo...

For many of us, when we think of bats, we think of one thing. rabies. the threat of that virus is often misunderstood. >> it is not very common for americans to get rabies. >> dylan george is a former white house adviser for biological threat defense. >> in any given year theres anywhere from zero to one to two people might get infected from rabies in bats or potentially from foxes or raccoons or skunks. >> rabies has actually been around 2,000 years. for most of that time, if you got it, it was...

Component. for instance, insect eating bats, because they consume so many insects, they play a large role in controlling insect populations. >> a normal size bat can eat up to 500 to 1,000 mosquitos in an hour that might be carrying diseases like zika or malaria. if youre in an area where there are a lot of mosquitoes and you see bats at night, you should be thankful for those bats. >> exactly. >> and that translates into big money for agriculture. the mexican free tail bat eat huge numbers of m...

They have a very unique relationship with pathogens generally. they have a unique biology and it allows them to co-exist in different ways. >> there are various theories about why that is. it might have to do with how long bats have been around. >> bats are an ancient species. they have been on planet earth a long time and that means theyve had a long history of being exposed and adapting to viruses in nature. >> another theory involves their body temperatures. >> a lot of people have come up wi...

Face like that, theyre using their wings as built-in blanket. >> he is part of a larger movement that has been taking place in the last three decades in the united states, teaching people why these creatures should be protected, not feared. >> were all here for one purpose and one target and one direction. thats to help these animals. to help people understand why they need our assistance. theyre so much like us. they are different looking, different colors, different sizes, different shapes, di...

Have come from bats. sars, marburg, ebola. so what is it about these creatures and the way they spread pathogens that can be so dangerous? >> the fact bats are carrying viruses is not in and of itself extraordinary. every animal has its normal suite of viruses and bacteria that it normally carries. people do as well. we carry viruses, bacteria, the majority are benign or beneficial, some of which cause disease. it is the fact that bats do tend to carry a higher proportion of viruses that have th...

In charge of mammology, at the museum of natural history. >> why are bats nocturnal? >> well, the thought is that actually, the ancestors of all mammals are all nocturnal. small animals scurrying around in the age of dinosaurs. it gave them access to resources that other animals like dinosaurs couldnt use. so bats basically never gave up that lifestyle. whereas the ancestors of us, primates, gave up the nocturnal lifestyle to be diurnal. >> but working at night it helps the bats how? >> if you t...

There are actually dozens of varieties of horseshoe bats living in a number places, including the temperate and tropical regions of central europe, africa and asia. in fact theres incredible variety among bat species. they can be found all around the world and every continent except antarctica. however, the diversity and unique abilities of bats is also what makes them tough to contend with when it comes to disease. theyre the only mammal capable of actually flying, so they can easily fly and sp...