Bats play an important, though still little known, role in human life: they pollinate our crops, they eat disease-carrying mosquitoes, and they themselves also carry disease. The bat is still a very unknown animal. There are more than 1400 species, and 25% of them discovered during the last 15 years. We don’t know how most bats evolved, where they live, and how they interact with the world around them. The more we know about bats, the better we can protect them as a species, and defend ourselves against the diseases they can transmit.
In a new article published in ZooKeys magazine focusing on the coronavirus pandemic, researchers have announced the discovery of at least four new species of African leaf-nosed bats, ‘cousins’ of horseshoe bats that are suspected of serving as hosts. of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
According to Terry Demos, a postdoctoral researcher in the Patterson lab and lead author of the paper: “None of these leaf-nosed bats carry any troublesome diseases today, but we don’t know if this will always be the case. We don’t even know the number of species that exist “.
The animals the team studied are leaf-nosed bats in the family Hipposideridae . They get their common name from the elaborate fins on the skin of their noses, which they use as radar to focus their calls and help catch their insect prey. The family spans Africa, Asia, and Australasia, but its African members are little known to science due to a lack of research.
New species, hidden in plain sight
To gain a better understanding of how African leaf-nosed bats are distributed and how they relate to each other, researchers, from Kenya’s Maasai Mara University and the National Museums of Kenya, and the Field Museum, conducted research. genetics, based almost exclusively on museum specimens collected in various parts of Africa over the past decades. In several cases, the species showed distinct genetic variations: they were new species, hidden in plain sight. Although they closely resemble other types of bats, their DNA suggests their different evolutionary histories.
Genetic research indicated that there were at least four new species of bat, not previously described; These new species do not have official names yet, but they give us an idea of how much we have to learn about the bats of Africa.
Protecting bats is protecting ourselves
Finding new species of bat takes on special importance in the era of COVID-19. The new African leaf-nosed species did not play a role in the coronavirus pandemic, but their sister family of horseshoe bats did.
Horseshoe bats are believed to have transmitted the new coronavirus to other mammals (possibly pangolins, but it is not certain), which then transmitted the virus to humans. This is not the first time that humans have contracted a disease from bats, which seem more capable of promoting transmission than other mammals: “Although all animals carry viruses, bats seem especially good at passing them to us. It may be because bats are some of the most social mammals, living in colonies of up to 20 million individuals. Because they clump together and take care of each other, it doesn’t take long for a pathogen to move from one end of the colony to the other, “explains study co-author Bruce Patterson in a press release.
Another possible reason why bats are prone to spreading disease can be attributed to their ability to fly. “Flying is the most expensive way to move energetically. Bats are all shoulders and chest muscles. They are incredible athletes ,” says Patterson. “Since flying is such hard work, they have a high metabolism and a strong immune system. Your DNA is really good at repairing itself when it’s damaged. This added resistance means that bats can harbor disease-causing agents without getting sick themselves. “
All this is not a reason to develop animosity towards these animals, which deserve our respect and protection.
What’s more, as the researcher points out: “The more we destroy bat habitats and expose them through hunting and eating bat meat, the more likely bats are to transmit viruses to people.”
In addition, he adds: “These bats have a place in nature and perform essential ecological functions, and we cannot allow our terror of COVID-19 to make us neglect natural ecological ecosystems.”
