Page 9 - Vampire Bat News Today

Tongue could go to the end of my arm, this bats tongue would go two more arms? >> thats right. >> there are a number of cute bats including one dubbed the panda bat. and another the kakaborosi, the tube-nosed bat, discovered in 2017, which made news for its resemblance to the former hairstyle of n syncs lance bass. >> theres the honduran white bat which looks like a cotton ball. you have your flying foxes that look like puppies. but then youve got some really weirdly ugly bats like wrinkle-faced...

America and prey on the blood of birds, pigs and cattle. >> vampire bats are super weird among bats. they sneak up on a cow. they put their face up against the cow. theyve got heat sensors on their nose to tell where the blood is close to the skin. they shave the area with their teeth before they cut. they lick the area to clean it. then they make a little divot with their front teeth, and they put their jaw up against that hole and they lick and drink and they pee. its completely creepy. who el...

Coronavirus originated in bats. bats are diverse and ancient creatures and theyve been on earth longer than we have. despite that, there is still a lot we dont know. tonight we take a look at this enigmatic animal and dig into the mystery of covid-19. in the last 20 years some of the deadliest virus outbreaks 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 that bats are carrying viruses is not ...

Scientists believe covid-19 may have had its roots in a community of horseshoe bats in southeastern china. these particular bats represent a very small subset of horseshoe bats, all named for the shape of their noses. there are actually dozens of varieties of horseshoe bats living in a number places, including the temperate and tropical regions ever southern europe, africa and asia. in fact, theres incredible variety among bat species. bats can be found living all around the world and every cont...

This virus. >> dr. epstein says the jury is still out on whether the wuhan market is ground zero for covid-19. but he agrees that wildlife markets are breeding grounds for the next biodisaster waiting to happen. why wouldnt china just shut down markets that are selling exotic species of animals? >> the population of southern china has been doing this for 5,000 years. you dont just close it down overnight. ♪

>> if you think about what the animals are that are active in the air during the day, its birds. and by being active at night, bats are not competing directly with birds. so the bats basically fulfill all the same ecological roles that birds do, only they do it at night. >> bats are unique mammals. though structurally in some ways theyre similar to humans. so bats have four limbs. two of them are attached to the wings. >> two of them are the wings. >> okay. >> yes. they have all the same bones t...

Bats. most of which are small insect-eating varieties like the big brown bat and the little brown bat. but in the southeastern parts of the united states, in particular in texas, theres an abundance of one species. the mexican free-tailed bat. in fact, bracken cave just outside san antonio is believed to be home to the single largest colony of bats in the world. >> every year during the spring and summer, i think there are something like 30 million bats in this case. >> in the cave? >> in the ca...

Of the pandemic, green spaces have become a refuge. for a few moments each day, we can stop and watch the wildlife, see the seasons change. but with this renewed focus on our environments, from the oceans to the land, from insects to exotic plants, life on earth is declining at an astonishing rate. and time is running out to repair this damage according to a un report published this year. and the pandemic, too, is linked to this destruction. coronavirus is thought to have first emerged in bats, ...

In the drc over a decade, including many coronaviruses in bats. so, its bats that get tracked. bats are linked to many zoonotic diseases, notably covid-19 and ebola. >> now we put it in the bag. you have to be really careful or they bite. >> the virologists have told us that whilst they havent found the ebola virus itself inside them, they have found the antibody. so these are in a sense a sentinel species, an early warning system for humanity. >> reporter: a net can prove fatal, start an epidem...

Then the samples are sent for more investigation. most of them survive capture and are returned to the wild. the congos population has almost doubled in two decades to around 90 million. this puts the forest under strain and closes the gap between people and the new diseases that could kill them. the scale of the destruction of the rain forest here in the congo is not yet on the scale that weve seen in the amazon. a great deal of it is a result of local farmers who clear the land and farm it for...