Page 11 - Vampire Bat News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

At night. >> bats are unique mammals. though structurally in some ways they're similar to humans. so bats have four limbs, two of them are attached to the wings. >> two of them are the wings. >> are the wings, okay. >> yes. they have all the same bones that humans do. in the upper arm, the forearm, there's two bones, wrist bones. then the bones that support the end of the wing are long finger and hand bones. >> bats' living and eating habits vary widely across the 1,421 species that exist. there's some that roost in trees, others under leaves, some in caves. some bats eat insects, others fruit...

They account for approximately 20% of all the world's mammal species. how many species of bats are there? >> 1,421 is the latest count, but we add at least 20 new species every year. >> so there are still species of bats that have never been -- >> oh, yeah. >> -- discovered? >> oh, yeah, absolutely.

Then they make a little divot with their front teeth, and they put their jaw up against that hole, and they lick and they drink and they bee. it's completely creepy. who else does that? >> i'll tell you who else. a serial killer does that. however, vampire bats don't kill their victims. they just act like a mammal-sized parasite. i've heard you say that the weirdness of bats was scientifically interesting to you. >> the faces of bats is a perfect example of that. if you take a bat that has a weird flap on its nose, you think that's a strange-looking adornment, it turns out a lot of bats have f...

>> and the signal to all sorts of cells that have not become infected. a virus is here. turn on your defense system. >> and typically, this manifests as inflammation. >> in humans, inflammation, oftentimes in the form of fever or swelling, helps fight infection. but too much, or inflammation that goes on for too long, can do more harm than good. it can even cause death. >> typically, more than half of the damage that results in disease tends to be the damage of the immune system attacking the host, itself. and we call that immunopathology. >> that's actually how the disease starts. >> but, bat...

Took a 50-pound weight and put it on my nipple with a jumper cable and just went for a run. it's just incredible what these mothers do. >> wow. uh -- that's a visual that's going to be with me for a while, dan. ongest lasting aa battery... (music) energizer ultimate lithium backed by science. matched by no one. ♪ come on! ♪ over here! ♪