WEBVTT - Disease Takes Flight on Leathery Wings 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:15.120 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:17.880 My name is Robert Lamp and I'm Christian Segre. Hey, Robert, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.680 I got a superhero question for you, Batman. Why doesn't 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.400 he have any disease related abilities or or like an 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.040 improved immune system? So, so, you know, Batman has been 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:33.040 around for like over seventy years, we largely know bats 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.760 as being disease carriers, right, and yet he doesn't seem to, 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:38.600 I mean outside of like I guess like he has 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:40.760 a little pellets on his pouch that he occasionally uses 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:42.599 to throw gas at people, but I don't think it's 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.080 like he's throwing a bowl at them. Yeah, it's interesting 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.760 when you start taking apart Batman, right, because in what 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.360 ways is Batman actually like a bat at all? Or 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.640 or perhaps more telling, in what ways, was was he 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.560 even initially like a bat? Because I know a number 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:00.600 of talented writers and artists have had a had a 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.400 chance over the years to build on the Batman mythos 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:08.199 and occasionally incorporate bits of bat science. But was maybe 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.640 you can answer this, was he essentially just a dude 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:15.160 in a mask? Because this this recently, I watched a 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:19.400 large portion of the the really bad nine nine Batman 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.240 and Robin series is like a serial black and white 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.360 forty nine. So this is pre uh the TV show. 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.360 I don't I don't think I've seen this riff tracks 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.000 has been installments of it, and it's it's really bad. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:37.080 It's from several different vantage points. It has, uh, there's 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.560 some anti Japanese sentiment that's in there. It has this 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.880 just terrible villain that's just called the Wizard, that's like 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.840 a just an old dude in a black robe, and 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.920 and it's just it. It's the the campus versions of 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.360 Batman and Robin as well, you know what you would like. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:54.800 And we have never talked about this off air before. 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.600 It is just popping in my head. Now, have you 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:01.520 ever heard of bat manga? It's so um Japan's version 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:05.840 of Batman done as manga. It's there's some really old 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.440 stuff and there's a whole book that Chip Kid put 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.760 together that's a collection of the bat manga comics, so 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.840 you get an idea of what Japan's iteration of Batman 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.600 and Robin were like. But then also just like photographs 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.800 of all of the collectibles, the Japanese collectibles related to Batman. Anyways, 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.679 It's fascinating because when you mentioned this Batman villain, the Wizard, 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.639 Like when you think of your like top rogues for Batman, 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.880 the Wizard isn't really high up there. Uh, and the 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:38.200 batmana stuff is very similar. He's got all these like 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:43.680 totally bizarre characters that he interacts with. From a Western perspective, 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.440 the thing that's interesting to me about the Wizard is 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.000 that it seems like somebody would have brought the Wizard 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.040 back just for the sake of doing it. Like it 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.040 seems like the kind of thing like a Grant Morrison 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.440 would say, Hey, nobody's brought this character back. What's some 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.440 sort of crazy counterculture span I can put on it? Yeah, 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:01.680 you know, you're right. Actually, so it's funny you mentioned 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.119 that Grant Morrison did bring back one of the weird 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.919 villains from The Batman. So yeah, I think his name 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.400 was like Mr. Deathman or something like that. It's like 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.360 a guy in a skeleton costume. Um. Anyways, Yeah, he 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:20.800 doesn't really have bat abilities right, Like, so, uh, he 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.040 doesn't really fly. He glides for the most part, does 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.919 not have powered flight, which is the big deal with that. Yeah, 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.160 and we're gonna talk a lot about that today. I 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.360 guess he has the bat plane that could kind of 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:39.760 count sometimes, but yeah, exactly. Um, he does use like echolocation. 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.400 I think that's become like more of a thing since 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:44.960 those Christopher Nolan movies. Yeah, I feel like that's definitely 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.840 a case where Invented Riders came in and said, hey, 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:49.920 we should make him behave a little like a bat 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.720 solce thrown. Yeah, those Arkham video games like, you can 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.920 use the echolocation stuff pretty frequently. They call it detective mode, 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.200 and you can basically like everything around you, kind of 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.840 like a radar fashion. I wonder has anyone ever decided 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:09.480 to have Bruce Wayne and Batman is essentially a fruit 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.280 bat where when he's not fighting crimes, just setting around 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.160 ian mangoes all day. Right, Yeah, I don't you know. 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.919 If anybody would do it would be Morrison and likewise 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:19.679 you have down here. If he was a fruit bat, 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:21.920 can he lack tape? That would be great too. That 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.440 would put a new maternal spin on it because of 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:28.200 just to throw out the quick snapshot of the science, uh, 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:33.200 certain varieties of male fruit bats lactate in order to 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.960 help we're the young, like most males. Uh well, let 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.640 me say that male humans can lactate is well under 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:44.000 the reser scenarios. But the male fruit bat in this 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.120 case is the only example of a mammal that regularly 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.479 lactates to help real young. Yeah. The only thing I 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.640 can think of that's even moderately close to that is 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:58.159 again Morrison introduced a bat cow. You know, like Batman 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.120 and Superman have like pets. He has like a dog 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:03.440 and a cat, and like Superman has a horse and 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.239 stuff like that. Is this really a thing? Yeah, totally. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.120 Superman has a horse. Yeah, comment the super horse. I 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:17.000 think Supergirl rides, ok, yeah, and it flies. But but 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:21.040 Batman had a cow. Uh in the Grant Morris in 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.479 line because I think, like Robin like, they infiltrated some 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.479 criminal headquarters where they're like abusing cows, and Robin like 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.120 saved one of the cows and brought it back to 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.440 Wayne Manner and it had like the markings on its face, 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.520 like the way that its coloration on his face was 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.280 looked like a bad symbol. Alright, like that, but all right, 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.599 let's bring it back to sort of reality for a 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.000 second year. He doesn't really have any disease related abilities. 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:47.520 And I'd say, like, if you walk up to most 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.240 people in the street and you say, like, hey, bats 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:52.240 what are the first three things you know about them? Right, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.360 they'd be like, they fly, they have echolocation, and they 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.760 their carriers of disease. Right. Um, So yeah, I don't know. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.279 Maybe when you and I get our hands on the 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.159 Batman franchise in ten or twenty years, will finally be 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.839 able to write that like Batman as the Black Plague. Well, 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.120 I guess it comes down to the idea that certainly 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.920 you have comic book characters that are embodiments of disease. 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.000 But there, you know, I think almost all villains. I 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:18.840 can't think of a hero off the top of my head. 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.320 I'm sure there's somebody. There's this really silly one. Oh God, 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.000 I can't remember what her name is, Infectious Lass. I 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.640 think she's one of the legions of the Legion of Superheroes. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:33.560 That's the only one I can think of. But why 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.080 are we talking about this? Why are we talking about bats? Well, 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.039 if you're a long time listener stuftable in your mind, 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.799 you know probably for the last year I've been casually 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.679 saying we should do an episode on bats, we should 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.280 do an episode on bats, And then we did the 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:49.200 Patient zero episode, and we were talking about bats there 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:54.120 because of how they spread disease, zoonotic disease. We specifically 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.520 talked about the case of Dr lu Jian Lun, who 0:06:57.640 --> 0:06:59.960 was a sixty four year old doctor in China's Guangda 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:07.359 Province UH, and he apparently transferred UH STARS I believe 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:11.320 it was to sixteen other guests staying on the same 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.960 floor of like a hotel UH and this seemed to 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:16.680 be a case of super spreading. We talked about this 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.600 a lot in the Patient zero episode. We get into 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.720 the idea of how STARS was sort of a bat 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.400 disease right that it was a zootic infectious disease. It 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.240 jumped from one species to another UH. This step involved 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.000 the virus being able to transmit then from human to 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.000 human without an animal reservoir like a bat. So it 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.760 was believed that STARS originated in bats and then spread 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.440 to other animals like civic cats, and then the civic 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.080 cats infected humans. Another thing that we talked about related 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.640 to bats was that they've got all kinds of diseases 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.560 that they're related to the Bola hepatitis c Stars and 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.040 also perhaps mers UH. In the case of Stars, it 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.960 was thought that it spread to humans in by bats 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:02.200 infecting horses in Brisbane, Austra Alia. Then two people caught 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:06.360 that virus from the horses, possibly from scratches, are being 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:10.640 exposed to infected blood. Both died horrible deaths UH and 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.520 other diseases. So they think maybe pigs have become infected 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:19.320 by eating saliva colored fruit that bats have just dropped, 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.480 and then the pigs infect humans. So it doesn't seem 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.680 like a lot of these zoonotic infection cases that bats 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.320 are biting humans and humans are getting the disease. It's 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.960 like various ways bats are infecting other animals and then 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.480 those other animals are infecting humans. They're just a major 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.800 conduit in the chain. Yeah. So um. We received a 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.480 little bit of listening mail about this, asking for clarification, 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.800 people who were concerned primarily about like the conservation of bats, 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.520 and the idea that maybe we didn't give the full 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:50.640 story and that that would subsequently lead to more fearmongering 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.440 of bats, right, and far be it from us. That 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.320 is the last thing I want to do. In fact, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.839 I have to just as a subjective thing before we 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.080 really get into bat I've spent some time in Austin, 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.680 Texas recently, and if anybody who's gone there and that 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.600 they know about the Batbridge, yeah, and man alive. I 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.679 love the Bat Bridge. It's so much fun. If you've 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.480 never been, I forget I thinks the Congress Street bridge 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.280 in Austin. But you go there certain times a year, 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.080 certain times a night, millions of bats live under this 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.760 bridge and they all fly out from under the neath 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:26.760 this bridge all at the same time. You get to 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.360 see them for about like thirty minutes, just the swarm 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.880 of them up in the air, flying around and then 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.720 going off to various parts of Austin to you know, 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.760 collect their food for the night, basically before they go 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.600 back to sleep under the bridge during the day. Again. Uh, 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.120 I like bats, Like if a bat was caught in 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.080 my home, like, my reaction wouldn't be killing, It would 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:48.760 be like, oh, let's capture that guy and then let 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.000 him back outside. Yeah. I U. I have to say that. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:56.920 On vacations, especially vacations to the Caribbean, which I've got 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:59.000 to go in on two of those in the last 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.800 couple of years, I've always both trips. I just really 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.320 enjoyed watching the bats when the sun began to go down. Um, 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:09.760 you know, they're just fascinating creatures. And uh, and when 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.120 I have captured them in the house before, not not 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.000 my house, but like a vacation house they staying. And 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.360 one time over a weekend they we found it. It 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.600 had somehow gotten trapped in the house and it was 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.400 trying to like get water out of the sink, and 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:27.000 I thought it was a tea bag at first. I'm 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.280 glad retrospect that I did not like gravitated or put 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.400 in my tea and have some horrible bat tea concoction. 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.960 But my son and I like made up, you know, 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.640 an activity out of freeing the bat from the house 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.760 and helping it get away. So yeah, bats are fascinating creatures. 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.440 Were certainly not trying to spread any fear about it. 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.839 In fact, this episode is about spreading some truth on 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.440 the matter. Yeah. In fact, we have actually gotten to 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.440 the point where between yes, bats carrying a lot of disease, 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:01.680 but they have these fascinating immune systems that we're starting 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.040 to look at the science of their anatomy how it 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.559 deals with these viruses and then how we might apply 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.480 that to human beings. Bats maybe the key to us 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.360 living longer lives and fighting off diseases that currently are 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.200 pretty dangerous to human beings. One day we may all 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.600 be batman and bad girls. Yeah exactly. And you know, 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:26.840 unlike Bruce Wayne, we will maybe carry viruses, but our 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.640 immune systems will be so fast that will just be 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:34.720 constantly compromising them. All right, Well, should we get down 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.040 to brass tacks the Yeah, let's just let's do a 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.520 little overview about bats. I think we should say. First 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:41.480 of all, like stuff to blow your mind. Before I 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.800 was on it did a bunch of bad episodes. You 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.280 and Julie have talked about them extensively. Um, so let's 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:51.319 just do a refresher. Okay. So, all told, they're about 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.719 five different species of bats in the world, and they 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.720 make up about a quarter of all mammal species. Uh. 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:02.960 There are forty five different species of bats that live 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.240 in the United States and Canada. Most bats species live 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.360 in the tropical regions of the world. Now, evidence for 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.800 bat like flying mammals appears as far back as that 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.280 you're seeing e box, some fifty million years ago. However, 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:21.079 the fossil record tracing bat evolution is incomplete, so based 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:25.480 on similarities of bones and teeth, most authorities agree that 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:31.400 bats ancestors were probably insect eating animals, possibly living in 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.280 the trees, and they likely the same group that gave 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:38.160 rise to shrews and moles. So bats are are not 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.480 rodents and they're not even uh closely related to that 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.240 group of mammals. Yeah, that's really important for what we're 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.400 going to discuss today too, because they're often compared to 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.920 rodents in terms of how the two different species act 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.240 as disease carriers. You think it's like a flying mouse. Yeah, 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.720 so most bats in UH in North America eat insects. 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.880 As a matter of fact, one at eats about two 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:05.760 thousand to six thousand insects each night. Wow. And just 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.880 a few other crazy cool facts about them. When it 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.560 comes to flying, it's it's easy to think, oh, it's 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:13.920 just it's a it's about with it's a mouse with wings. 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.520 It's like a cross between a mouse and a bird. Well, 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:21.800 it's more complicated and more amazing than that. So throughout 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:27.360 human history, we've only had a few evolutionarily distinct modes 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.640 of flight, and there are only three distinct modes of 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:36.280 vertebrate flight flight. There there's the terasarian flight that was 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:42.679 you know employed by the by by pterodactyls, pterodactyls, um taranodons, etcetera. 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.280 And then you have avian flight, and then you have 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.400 chiropter in flight, which is bats. So these are distinct 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.679 modes of flight that were that were that evolved separately. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.559 And then on top of that there there's insect flight 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:00.560 as well. So four models all told. Now you once 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.520 had mega bats as opposed to micro bats, and these 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:05.959 are large bats that were the are that are found 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.920 in old world tropical rainforests such as Australia, Asia and Africa, 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.480 so dire bats. Yeah. And then the biggest bats in 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.520 the world, and the biggest bat in the world right 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.160 now is the Malayan flying fox found in Asia. It 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.200 weighs about two pounds and has a wingspin of about 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.720 six ft and it eats only fruit. See yeah, and 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.760 people are probably you know, scared of it, I would assume, 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.520 even though it's just you know, eating nectar, eating nectar 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.360 and pooping. I mean, yeah. Um, the flying fox comes 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.000 up a lot in this research. It's one of the 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.600 one of the species that's investigated. Now, the smallest bat 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.480 in the world is kitties hog nose bat, also called 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.040 the bumblebee bat, and it's found in Thailand. Weighs about 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.360 two grams that's about how much of dime ways, and 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.200 it has a six inch wings. But it's like a 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.920 hummingbird bat, any tiny little thing. All right, let's take 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.480 a quick break and when we come back, we will 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:06.520 jump into the disea. Okay, so we're back. So yeah. 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.440 So there is this just assumption by most people that 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.760 bats carry disease. Right, That's why most people freak out 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.200 when they find a bat in their house. It's like, oh, 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.040 it's gonna spread disease. It's probably got rabies or something. Right, 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.080 we've got a god. I remember this when I was 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.080 like five years old. We were at my uncle's house 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.240 and there was a bat in the attic and he 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.880 had a tennis racket and was like chasing this bat 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.480 around the house with a tennis racket, trying to trying 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.640 to kill it. And I, even at five, I was like, 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.720 why just open the window, man, let this back. Anyway, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.200 bats are a refuge for some of the world's most 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:46.400 lethal diseases to humans. That is true. And that includes rabies, Ebola, 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.680 Marburg and stars. Now, because there are many high profile 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.800 epidemics that are traced to bats, we call these bat 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.200 born viruses, and there's a whole line of investigation related 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.520 to bat born viruses. They're similar the way that they 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.280 carry diseases, similar to rats or mice, and that they 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:08.560 are known as disease reservoirs. But again, they are not rodents, 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:12.400 so these are very different species. Now, while they seem 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:17.440 adept at harboring and spreading disease, others argue that this 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:22.080 notoriety for bats isn't justified. Most of the time, reservoirs 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.360 like bats rarely show symptoms of the disease that they're 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.280 actually infected with. This is why they came up as 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.800 a topic when we were talking about patient zero. Other times, 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.560 the virus infects a new, more vulnerable species like us 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.320 human beings. This is why most research says that bats 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.680 were responsible for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Now, 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.400 what's weird is that bats don't seem to die as 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:50.880 quickly from these viruses. In Ghana, for instance, sixty eight 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.080 percent of fruit bats over ten years old had antibodies 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:59.000 in their system for the rabies LESA virus, but they 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.760 were all in good health. The same goes for those 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.159 that were carrying a bowla. There was only one presumed 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.080 bat to human transfer of the disease. So there's this 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.280 this fear that the bats are going to spread the 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.360 disease to us, right, and yet there's very little evidence 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.880 that there's bad to human transfer. Uh, but more along 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.200 the lines like we were talking about earlier, that it's 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.360 more like bats. In fact, other animals were encroaching upon 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:27.760 bat habitats. Therefore we get infected as it transfers from 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:33.119 animal to animals. Zoonotic infection now obligatory Simpsons reference. UM. 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.480 I remember there being an episode where it's it's explained 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.520 that Mr Burns Uh is still alive because he has 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.000 all of these illnesses that are I think these a 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.200 graphic that shows like all these illnesses trying to squeeze 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:47.920 through a door at the same time, and none of 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:49.880 them can get through, and that's why I can't die 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.040 from any of them. That's fascinating. So I can't help 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:56.160 but think of that, yeah, kind of Uh. In Australia, 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.160 thirty flying foxes. I told you they'd come up add 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.959 antibodies to the Hendra virus, and this indicated that they 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.679 had been infected with it at some point, but only 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.399 three percent at any given time we're actually carrying it, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.280 so that's a small amount compared to the amount that 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.080 had been infected. The infected bats themselves had low levels 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.160 of this pathogen, indicating that they were somehow keeping it 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:25.200 at bay. Subsequently, it's really rare for the Hendra disease 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:29.840 to pass even from bats to horses. However, in eleven 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:34.159 it leapt over in twenty four cases, and the theory 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.520 for that is because the bats were stressed out uh 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.320 and that the this caused a surge in the level 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:42.800 of viruses that the bats were carrying and subsequently made 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:44.880 it easier for them to pass it on to horses. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.240 This is going to be important later when we talk 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:51.040 about uh massive culing of bats when people go, oh, 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.719 their disease carriers. We've got to wipe them out, go 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.200 destroy their colonies, right or else they're going to give 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.200 us these diseases. That could only make things worse because 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.080 then you're stressing out the bat population, which makes the 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.440 diseases become even more powerful. Now, I want to throw 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.639 in a note on vampire bats here as well. So Um, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.200 the author of Bill Shoot has a wonderful book titled 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:15.480 Dark Banquet that deals with vampiric organisms in general, but 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:17.720 a lot of it deals with bats. It's also a 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.800 vampire the gathering RPG men. It could be if you 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:25.240 want to do a very science oriented campaign. He also 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:26.919 has a book on cannibals out that I have not 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.959 read anyway. In the book, he points out that vampire 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.280 bats introduced the additional threat of a disease promoting wound. 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:36.640 The host survives the feeding, but the wound invites additional 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.960 organisms and infections. The bigger concern though, is going to 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.040 be raybies. So it's not the most deadly or the 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.960 most common batborn illness, but if the infection takes hold, 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.760 it's essentially fatal in humans and and and rather infamous 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:57.160 as well. Um, you know of all the pathogens affecting 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:03.480 humans and in bat populations overall, um rabies sero prevalence, 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:05.880 that's a number of persons in a population who test 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:10.760 positive for specific disease can reach fift And you have 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:12.960 some notes here about Trinidad. We were talking a little 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.080 bit about this earlier because of some Trinidadian folklore, there's 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.800 bats all over the place down there. Yeah and uh. 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.240 And this is an account that to Shoot mentions in 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.040 his book that I think is interesting. It definitely involves 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.920 both bats and disease, but also superstitions attempts to call 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:35.240 bat populations. So in Trinidad, bat transmitted rabies killed eighty 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.919 nine people and thousands of cattle between n and nineteen 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:43.280 thirty four. In thirty four, that's when the Trinidadian Medical 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.520 Department rolled out its anti rabies unit, and their job 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.760 was to respond to vampire bat attacks net and destroy 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.440 the vamps. So they they painted uh that they did 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.520 this by not only killing the bats on the side, 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.720 but they also painted poisonous paint on vampire bat decimating colonies. 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:06.160 It was a rough situation. Well, and I immediately think 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.680 to the current science and wonder, I wonder how much 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.800 they stressed out the bat population, further spreading disease. The 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.719 human think they certainly did, And Shoot points out that 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.399 superstition played apart in this as well. So local Trinidating 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:24.439 and the folklore told of creatures called suk unts, and 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.080 these are crones or hags that can shed their skin 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.520 at night and become a fiery, blood sucking ball and 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:35.159 you sprinkle rice on your doorstep to keep them away. Now, 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:37.840 there were also conservationists at the time, and they could 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.840 they combated the folklore and the general you know, fear 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.760 of disease associated with bats by spreading the message that look, 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:47.480 there are only two out of fifty eight bat species 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:50.080 on the island that are vampires, and if those two 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:54.840 only the common vampire bat or does Modus rotundus is 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:59.080 a significant rabies threat. Okay, So that yeah, so that 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.840 definitely sounds a situation where the fear of bats sort 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.720 of got the better of the human population and maybe 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:09.280 made the problem worse. So we've we've really outlined here 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.680 that Okay, these bats carry all these diseases, they don't 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.560 seem to be affected by it too much. What's the deal? 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:20.879 And you know, subsequently, why then does it transfer? Okay, well, 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:25.280 it seems like bats have superimmune systems. Again, something you 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:28.240 would think that Batman would have his power, right, like, 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:29.920 like that would be a cool power. He just never 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.359 gets I guess Batman just never gets sick anyway, because 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:37.080 but it's not like any villains are trying. Yeah, well, 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:39.880 that's kind of why the bats turns out have such 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.080