The intense curiosity about bats stems from a recently seen photograph of her fangs, open mouth, flat nose, wrinkled eyes, ears facing forward, wings open like a cape, a well-defined vein, an invincible gesture, a facial expression that can be said to be vicious, and with a hint of an evil smile.
His appearance, and the kind of eyes that are insightful, mocking, and in control of the whole situation, are quite spiritual, reminding me of the evil spirit that Pamuk often mentions in "My Name Is Red", which is everywhere, with a hint of ominous weirdness.
It's this picture of an evil spirit
For the first time, I was so fascinated by a creature.
Desperate to understand his past and present lives, while beginning to collect information, he was impressed by the extraordinary ability of bats, which is an incomparably tenacious creature, unlike humans who make various tools to provide services for themselves, but bats have evolved themselves into a sophisticated machine, with almost all the solutions to the problems of life that humans have been exploring.
Super sensory system
Communication system
Bats are extremely capable of using echo localization, capturing and resolving 250 sets of echoes in 1 second. By emitting high-frequency sounds that the human ear cannot receive, receiving the echo of the return and rapidly analyzing the surrounding environment, it can quickly determine the direction of obstacles, plan flight routes, and even choose to escape.
With this special skill, they can take advantage of niches that most animals can't take advantage of— pitch-black caves and dark skies.
Thermal induction receiver
Vampire bats are real, and the most important detector officer for this vampire bat in South and Central America is the heat-sensing receiver on the nose, which can detect the blood vessels with the largest blood flow in animals from about 20 centimeters away.
Navigation system
After hunting, bats need to return to their habitat in the fastest route, otherwise the energy consumption will make the hunting action particles no harvest, scientists found that bats contain trace amounts of iron oxide, forming a built-in compass system in the body, can help them find the nearest route back to the habitat, with this magnetic induction ability, they have become one of the few animals on the earth that can use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation.
Flight system
Since the successful flight about 60 million years ago, it is the only mammal on the earth that can really fly, and so far, although they do not have the feathers and wings of birds, and their flying skills are much worse than birds, but their forelimbs are very developed, the upper arms, forearms, metacarpal bones, and phalanges are particularly long, and they support a thin and hairy layer, from the end of the phalange to the humerus, the side of the body, the hind limbs and the tail between the soft and tough skin membrane, forming a unique flying organ of bats - the wing hand.
Bats have very thin skin membranes that they can easily rupture during flight, but don't worry, bats have super wound healing ability and repair ten times faster than human skin healing.
Covering the membrane are thousands of hairs, giving bats more sensitive perception to obtain accurate airflow maps in real time.
Energy-saving system
Bats need to consume a lot of energy in the process of flying and hunting to emit ultrasonic waves, and they have their own system to cope, that is, the movement of the wings and breathing cooperate with each other, so that the breathing and positioning systems coincide to save energy. The system is only stopped when approaching prey, precisely positioned with denser echoes; in icy caves, bats maintain body temperature and energy by hugging each other for warmth.
Sleep system
However, a brown bat living in northern Canada, at a temperature of minus 20 degrees, formed a special physiological function, in the cold cave, their body temperature dropped to almost the same as the surrounding environment, which is basically impossible for other warm-blooded animals, in order to conserve energy, they shut off the body's function, cut off the supply of blood to the limbs, the heart rate also dropped to 10 times per minute, they can maintain 90 minutes per breath, and the dormant state lasts for several months, within 10 minutes. It was able to recover quickly and instantly come back to life.
Dormant bats
摄影：JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK
Reproductive function
Their fertility is not high, close to humans, can only breed one litter a year, only one litter a year, and there is a phenomenon of "delayed fertilization", that is, fertilization does not occur during mating before hibernation, sperm spend the winter in the reproductive tract of female animals, and after waking up in the following spring, the mated female beast begins to ovulate and fertilize, and then become pregnant and give birth. Mating behavior also occurs during the nesting process and oral sex is observed, which is the first time researchers have found similar behaviors in primate mammals other than humans and gorillas.
Ultra-long standby
For thermostatic animals, the larger the body, the longer the lifespan and the slower the heartbeat. For example, elephants have only 26 heartbeats per minute, with an average lifespan of 60 years; blue whales can have a heartbeat as low as 2 beats per minute (when diving), with an average lifespan of 80 years; and rats can beat 500 times per minute, and their lifespan is only 3 years.
Bats need to fly, energy consumption and body temperature maintenance challenges are greater, so they need a stronger metabolic rate, the heart rate of bats when flying can be as high as 800 to 1000 times per minute, and what matches them is that they have an unusually long average lifespan - 30 years. It turns out that during a genetic mutation about 5 million years ago, bats gained the ability to repair genes, so their somatic cells can divide far more than the average animal limit.
Gerald Wilkinson, a professor at the University of Maryland, points out: "If we can live as long as bats, we can live 240 years by volume." ”
Epidemic prevention system
For bats, we are most concerned about the virus on their bodies, bats are indeed the storage hosts of many new viruses, such as Ebola, Marburg virus, SARS, MERS coronavirus, Hendra virus, Nipah virus, etc., most of which belong to the killing virus.
About 140 viruses have now been found in bats, 61 of which are zoonotic viruses, and some of them are even hidden.
The first line of defense
They have a class of natural killer cells in their bodies, forming the first line of defense against external pathogenic microorganisms and tumors.
Second line of defense
Interferon levels in bats are also relatively high, prompting cells to synthesize antiviral proteins to prevent further infection.
The third line of defense
For cells that have already been infected, the MHC-histocompatibility complex in bats plays an important role, recognizing whether the cells are infected or not, and instantly breaking down and destroying infected cells.
So bats raise their body temperature to 40°C, desperately burn calories, and adjust their immune systems to "normally on mode."
In order to eliminate most pathogens with high temperature, the human immune system will also begin to "fever" mode, the body can not stand in this high temperature for a long time, so our immune system has a start time, after being activated by the pathogen to start working, sometimes some violent pathogens can be in one fell swoop in our immune system has not had time to respond, knocking people down.
I saw a passage on the Internet that explains the operating patterns of fever and immunity:
Man: Immune system, why do I have a fever?
Immune system: because I'm sick.
Man: Why did you have a fever?
Immune system: because the virus does not live long at 40 degrees.
Man: But I can't live long at 40 degrees?
Immune System: I admit I have toxic ingredients, but today you and the virus must die one
Near the Malama gambo Forest Pheasant Lodge, an Egyptian fruit bat in a giant bat cave. Bats here have been found to carry Marburg virus.
Roles in the ecosystem
Bats have lived on Earth for 88 million years, accounting for 20% of mammals, and they haunt at night, both meat-eating bats and vegetarian bats. Bats are everywhere in the world, except for the north and south poles and some Oceania islands, and it can be said that bats are an important part of the global ecosystem.
Pollination:
The pollination behavior of bees and butterflies is very familiar to us, in fact, for some plants, bats must be relied on to pollinate. For example, some plants bloom at night, and some vines in Central and South America will attract honey-eating bats to pollinate them.
Plant seeds must be spread far away from the parents to ensure the reproduction and spread of the population, fruit bats will bring a large number of fruits away from the mother tree, after eating the fruit, the seeds will be thrown away, the seeds fall to the ground, germinate, take root, and gradually grow into lush plants. For fruits such as figs, which contain many small seeds, fruit bats eat the whole fruit, and the seeds are then excreted by bats. Studies have shown that some figs can only germinate after digestion by fruit bats or bird stomachs.
Predatory pests:
Bats are nocturnal animals that can prey on some pests that are also active at night, such as nocturnal moths and scarabs, which are a great threat to crops, and mosquitoes are also one of the food of bats, and a bat can prey on about 3,000 pests a night.
Giant flying fox at the Henry Dolly Zoo in Omaha.
Biofertilizers:
The excrement of bats is rich in nitrogen and is an organic fertilizer.
Virus spread
In fact, these viruses and bats have evolved for many, many years, from a few decades to hundreds of years, or even tens of thousands of years, so how did they reach human society? The source of SARS is that bats are not false, but if we do not abuse civets and eat civets, then the chain of transmission of the virus from bats to civets to humans will not occur, and SARS will not break out.
In Africa, wildlife is one of the sources of carnivorous food, especially in rural areas, where people like orangutans, monkeys and bats are their main hunting targets. In this way, the Ebola virus has repeatedly moved from the jungle to the village and finally to the city.
The Nipah virus in Malaysia is due to the accelerated expansion of human activities, which continues to penetrate the habitats of wild animals. We built the pig farm next to the bat habitat, the bat ate the fruit, the fruit was contaminated by the virus and fell into the pigsty, the pig ate and then contracted the disease, and then infected the virus to people.
We went to the Yiling Rock in Guangxi Autonomous Region to investigate, and found about 5,000 brown fruit bats in a cave. Asked if they still ate brown fruit bats after SARS. The answer is that the ordinary staff has not been allowed to eat now, only for the distinguished guests who come to visit the cave!
In 2000, when I visited Hainan, farmers found a large herd of brown fruit bats in the countryside not far from Haikou. They wiped out all the brown fruit bats in the cave, about 20,000 of them, and each of them divided them and took them home to eat!
In 2003, we visited the wildlife market in Guangzhou due to SARS traceability work. In several stalls in the market, there are cages of brown fruit bats. I inquired curiously about the price: more than ten dollars a piece.
Since the 1940s, a neurological disease has descended on Guam, afflicting the Chamorro aborigines there. Researchers have found that this neurological disease is directly related to the eating of fox bats by Chamorro people.
Whether it is the consumption of wild animals or the erosion of the territory where wild animals live, these have greatly increased the contact surface between humans and animals, creating conditions for the spread of viruses from wild animals to humans.
Coupled with convenient transportation, the spread of infectious diseases from a small village to the whole world can soon be transmitted. Therefore, infectious diseases are not a village-by-regional event, it is a public health issue of global concern. Therefore, to prevent emerging infectious diseases from the source, it is to stay away from it, eliminate wildlife consumption, and reduce the invasion of wildlife habitats.
Critically endangered Florida hatted bat.
In the process of searching for information, I was particularly moved by a documentary, Rodrio Medellín is a "Mexican Batman", who has been fascinated by bats since childhood, raised vampire bats since childhood, and has been dedicated to saving the animals ever since.
One of Mexico's most exported commodities, tequila, is at risk, and his favorite bat, the proboscis bat, is crucial for the wine, which is pollinated by bats.
Following him, he saw the long migration process of this small bat, they were conceived in a distant outer island cave, and then followed the traces of food, broke through the dangers, and migrated all the way to the desert cave to give birth and raise their cubs.
Small proboscis bat
Then I saw a multitude of bat populations of all kinds, with their own different personalities and appearances, whether it was bloodthirsty vampire bats or soft Honduran white bats, all amazing, and I thought they should be primates, although they belonged to the same bat, but they had different forms and habits. I think bats are gentle animals that don't intentionally hurt people or try to spread the virus.
Long-eared bats with double ears
Big-eared bat of The Soup's at the Sulfate Creek Nature Center.
Honduran white bats
Squeezed together on a leaf, the Honduran white bat looks like a small cotton ball, and is also loved by everyone to call the pig milk yellow bun, and their ears, nose and wings, are bright orange, may be the most cute and innocent breed in the bat world, but look closely at her lips, there is still a little dense fear.
Flat-headed bat
The flat-skull bat is listed in the Red Book of Endangered Animals in China and is one of the smallest bats in China. When the wings are spread out, the width is less than 20 centimeters, and the average weight is only 3. 5 g. Except for two brief trips out at dawn and dusk every day, they spend all the rest of their time hiding in bamboo tubes. The flattened heads naturally had their own effect, and it was in this way that they could drill into the narrow openings in the bamboo to resist the invasion of creatures with larger heads than theirs.
Chrysanthemum bat
The chrysanthemum bat is significantly different from other bats due to the special complex leaf-like protrusions on the mouth and face, and if I had to say it, I would say that he actually looks like a gorilla, and he is an important host for many animal-derived viruses such as rabies virus, Nipah virus, Hanta virus and so on. Living in caves, hibernating in the depths of caves in winter, feeding on insects and their larvae, distributed in Jilin, Shandong, Fujian, Sichuan, Yunnan, Shaanxi and other places, inhabiting almost all tropical and subtropical caves in a dark and humid environment, its suspension is only less than 3 meters above the ground.
The hoofed bat is found in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World and ranges from tiny to large. Like the chrysanthemum bat, it has a horseshoe-shaped nose leaf, but the nasal leaf does not have the complex structure of the chrysanthemum bat, the ear size is medium, and there is no ear screen like the chrysanthemum bat, which is also a typical example of the facial features sticking together and not clearly distinguished.
Thai pig-nosed bat
The Thai pig-nosed bat is the smallest mammal in the world, no more than 2 grams in size (equivalent to a 1 dime coin, which is also really mini), the total body length is about 30mm, and the total length when the wings are extended is about 16cm. The wings are located on the lower abdomen of the body, and their apexes are very long, just to accommodate circling flight in the air.
Vampire bats
Vampire bats are a collective term for all species of vampire bats in the bat family, with a small body, no exposed tail, and a predominantly dark brown coat. It looks very ugly, and it doesn't start to move until after dark, and it forages regularly every night — sucking the blood of animals, and different kinds of vampire bats suck different blood objects. There are grooves under the tongue and on both sides, and blood flow is communicated along the line. The tongue can stick out and retract slowly, creating a partial vacuum in the mouth that helps blood flow into the mouth.
Australian ghost bat
It does look a lot like ghosts, like insectivore bats, and ghost bats use echolocation, but not always. The ghost bat often inhabits trees, and its eyes are large enough to scan the grass below for rats or other prey. After finding its prey, the ghost bat falls on the prey, wraps its wings around the prey, and then performs a fatal bite on the head and neck of the prey.
Grey-headed fox bat
It is really the most chivalrous bat, even the appearance of hanging upside down on the tree has a chivalrous style, leisurely. It is mainly distributed in the forest areas of australia's southeast coast and is a species unique to Australia. The gray-headed fox bat head is 230-290 cm long, with an average wingspan of up to 1 meter, an average weight of 700 grams, and a weight of up to 1 kg, mainly feeding on tree fruits, pollen and nectar.
The Australian Bat Clinic rescued a very special grey-headed fox bat, which has a cute white face, a black ear, and black and white spots on its wings that resemble cows, which are white and black ears due to gray-headed fox albinism.
The rabbit-lipped bat is huge and is found only in the northern jungles of South America. The nose and mouth are pointed without nasal lobes, the ears are large, have small entral screens, and can also catch insects with their claws. The legs are long, the feet are large, and the toes are covered with long, sharp hook-shaped claws, which are sharp enough to catch small fish up to 10 centimeters long. When fishing, the tail membrane is polymerized while flying, and the toes, pitches and tibia are stretched in a streamlined shape on the sides to minimize resistance when gliding on the surface of the water, and the tibia is obviously different from ordinary bats, not only long, but also the junction between the wing membrane is very high.
Wide-eared dog kissing bat
Naked-tailed dog bat at Zitengo camp in Gorongosa National Park.
Leaf-nosed bats belong to a class of bats in Taiwan, with a dark brown or yellowish brown body and a pale ventral surface. Adult male and female bats have frontal sacs, but male individuals are more pronounced. Both male and female bats have false nipples on the ventral pubic mound, but the reproductive female bat is more obvious for juvenile bats to climb. Its natural habitat is low- and middle-altitude caves, artificial buildings or bridges. It competes with the fold-winged bat or the Taiwanese small-hoofed nose bat, and often co-inhabits a hole.
Colored bats are animals of the genus Colored Bats in the family Bat family, which looks a bit like a combination of bats and butterflies, distributed in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Chinese mainland Guangxi, Hainan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Fujian and other places, generally inhabiting forests and under leaves.
Florida, a female red-haired bat.
Large spear-nosed bat at the Henry Dolly Zoo in Omaha.
Short-nosed fruit bat at the Ruby Bat Sanctuary in Gainesville, Florida.
Punishment and revenge?
In a way, they are invincible, almost all threats in nature, through the evolution and upgrading of their own systems, formed a strong defense, but under the "claws" of humans, bats seem to feel powerless for the first time, and if you think about it, bats use the spread of viruses on their bodies, which may be a special strategic defense against humans.
Few mammals can be as evocative as bats, from superheroes to vampires, but also reflect the reality, both to help people get rid of pests, balance the ecology of the member, but also bring the stubborn virus of death, good or evil, depending on human choice.
I had thought that if not from a moral point of view, these so-called infectious diseases are nothing more than nature's revenge on human beings, and Xiao pointed out to me that revenge is not appropriate, the word pattern is too small, nature does not care to retaliate against whom, it should be a punishment, I am very much in favor of the word "punishment", if you do not hold a reverence for nature, one day, you will be punished by him, and this day, are we not experiencing?
Resources:
https://www.cdc.gov.tw/File/Get/3k83VP2xK4UB-yC1E0XyGg
Documentary "Miniature Wonders of Nature"
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av20015308/?spm_id_from=333.788.videocard.6
Documentary "The Bat"
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av13500389/?spm_id_from=trigger_reload
The documentary Fantastic Beasts Reveals The Wonder.of Animals https://www.bilibili.com/video/av21200399/?spm_id_from=333.788.videocard.2
Documentary "Bat Flight Research"
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av57457608/?spm_id_from=333.788.videocard.4
Zhang Lei Science Network Blog: http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-2966991-1094398.html
https://kknews.cc/science/6o4jyl3.html
http://m.1nongjing.com/201712/212592.html
http://www.ngchina.com.cn/animals/animalphotos/7517.html
Image source network
The motivation for writing is purely a hobby, and please point out the information collection and sources and if there is any inaccuracy in the text
Originally written on my personal public account: Radio Collection