S6 E5: Have You Gone Batty? The Story of Bats, Disease and the Environment

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Hello and Welcome to Cause of Death one

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hundred seconds to Midnight. I'm your
host, Jackie Moranti. Today we're talking

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about some of my favorite animals.
I love bats. They're probably the most

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amazing creatures on the planet. Bats
are the base of several ecosystems, and

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without them, those ecosystems would fail, and without those ecosystems, several food

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sources would also fail. But bats
also carry some of the most deadly diseases

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known to mankind. Stars, mirrors, coronavirus, ebola. They all have

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their natural reservoirs in bats. People
fear bats, maybe because they carry disease,

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maybe because they have visions of Dracula
in their heads, maybe because they

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don't understand how invaluable they are.
Bats have become targets of the people who

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consider them pess Now several species are
endangered, and that could be far worse

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for the ecosystems that they are a
vital part of. It's ninety seconds to

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Midnight and a vital part of the
chain of wildlife is coming under attack by

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humans who don't understand that bats are
the intermediary between human life and death in

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more ways than one. I thought
it would be cool to take a look

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at the dichotomy of the bat.
We would die without them, but they

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could kill us off just by existing. Bats are mammals of the order chirrup

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Tera, meaning handwing. They are
the only mammals capable of sustained flight.

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They have four limbs that are adapted
as wings, and their digits are covered

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in a thin membrane called a pedagium. Bats are more agile in flight than

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most birds. That flexible membrane and
the movable joints of the four fingers and

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thumb allow them to change direction very
quickly and catch mosquitoes and other insects in

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midair. If you've never seen bats
fly, it is a sight to behold.

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They are amazing to watch Bats roost
upside down. There are several theories

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on this, but the most widely
accepted theory is that they do this because

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they have to fall into flight in
order to get enough momentum to go up.

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They have to let gravity take control
first. There are thirteen hundred species

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of bats living in almost every country
in the world. Some are no bigger

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than a child's palm. Others have
six foot wingspans. There are two types

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of bats, microbats and megabats.
Microbats eat insects that come out at night.

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Vampire bats are the only species of
bat that survives on blood rather than

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insects, and they usually get this
blood from cattle and horses, not humans.

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Microbats live in caves and hunt after
dark, so to get around they

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rely on echolocation to locate objects using
sound waves. They make a high pitched

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sound that travels until it hits an
object, then bounces back to them.

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This tells them how far away something
is and how big it is. Megabats

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live in the tropics and they eat
fruit, nectar, and pollen. These

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bats have larger eyes and a stronger
sense of smell, but since they don't

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echolocate, they have smaller ears.
These bats are usually larger than microbats.

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Bats haven't gotten a fair shake by
humans historically. They've been associated with disease,

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vampires, and overall creepiness and all
sorts of negative things. But before

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I get into the negatives, I
want to talk about the positive things that

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bats offer ecosystems. Bats live in
a variety of places, forests, caves,

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addicts. Their habitats are called roosts, and normally they live in colonies.

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It's rare to see a single bat
in a roost. They have different

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roosting conditions for different times of year. Most bats don't build their roost They

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use whatever's there, and most of
the time these roosts are close to water

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and very dark and quiet as the
weather worms, Pregnant females will gather together

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in a warm, safe place.
These are called maternity roosts. Many bats

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will use the same maternity roosts every
year to have they're young. The gestation

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period for a vat is between six
and nine weeks. Bats will usually give

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birth to a single pup every year. They're very good moms and keep their

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pups close. Bats are mammals,
so they give birth to live young and

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suckle them until they're weaned at about
four or five weeks old, and then

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they're old enough to fly and they
can forage on their own. Bats are

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very sensitive when they're pregnant and just
after giving birth. If they're disturbed before

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the pups are weaned, they may
abandon them, so it's better to stay

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away from their habitats during early summer. Bats mate in the fall, but

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they don't become pregnant until spring.
The females will store the sperm until after

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hibernation so that they have enough energy
to make it through pregnancy. Most bats

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will hibernate during the winter months.
During hibernation, the animal will experience a

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drop in body temperature, their metabolic
rate slows, and they'll survive on the

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fat they've stored up over the summer. Also during hibernation, bats will choose

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a place that remains the same temperature
no matter what the weather is outside.

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Caves make perfect hibernation roosts since the
temperature doesn't fluctuate a whole lot. Not

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all bats hibernate, though several species
migrate to warmer climates when the weather doesn't

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suit them. Several species will roost
in trees. About three quarters of the

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British bat populations are known to roost
in trees. Trees not only provide shelter

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for the animals, but they also
attract a diverse range of bugs to eat.

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Bats will also roost and abandoned buildings, or if there's an opening in

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an attic, they'll get in there
and roost. They'll make homes and houses,

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bridges, barns, and occasionally public
buildings. There was a very old

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building on the CSU campus that was
a bat sanctuary. Not on purpose,

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mind you, but there were just
enough gaps in the attic that the bats

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made a huge roost in there.
For any of you CSU alumni listening,

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this is the Gibbons Building. It
used to be where students in need of

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food, shelter, tutoring, or
scholarships would go. That was a long

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time ago, though, so I'm
not sure where those services are on campus

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now. But if you were walking
along the northeast side of campus at dusk,

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you could watch the bats come out
of the building when they went to

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forage at night, and it was
pretty cool. Bats are known to live

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in urban areas, and if you
know what you're looking for, they can

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be seen foraging all over even the
biggest cities. From Denver, Colorado,

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to Austin, Texas, to Baltimore, Maryland, and Los Angeles, the

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largest cities in the country, are
home to millions of bats. They've adapted

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to city life pretty well, and
city bats are probably some of the best

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fed bats. There are plenty of
bugs to eat out there. Bats live

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close to where they can forage for
food, and they usually live near a

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water source. Their foraging grounds are
as varied as the bats themselves. Microbats

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are carnivorous, mostly eating bugs like
mosquitoes. See how valuable they are already.

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On an average night, a single
bat will eat its body weight in

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insects. These little flying acrobats save
the agricultural industry over three point seven billion

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dollars a year in pesticides. And
this doesn't include the amount of insects that

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bats eat in forest habitats, which
helps the lumber industry, nor does it

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include the number of insects that bats
eat in urban areas. Macro bats are

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important crop pollinators. These bats live
by eating the nectar from plants, so

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as they move from plant to plant
and flower to flower, they pollinate them.

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Without bats, we wouldn't have seguirocactus
or pipe cactus. There would be

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no bananas, no mangoes, no
avocados, no nuts, figs, coco

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or coffee, nor would there be
tequila. Bats pollinate agave. Think about

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it. Bats pollinate over three hundred
species of fruit. They spread seeds for

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various other plants. Some of the
plants that bats pollinate are used for medicines.

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Yes, folks, many of our
medicines are made from plants. They're

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not all engineered by magic. About
eighty species of medicinal plants are pollinated by

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bats. And I don't know about
you, but without coffee, chocolate,

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guacamolian mangoes, I don't think I
can survive. Bats have helped us use

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ecolocation in radar systems. They've also
helped us figure out navigational aids for the

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blind, and research on bats has
helped us develop vaccines. That's how important

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bats are. We depend on them
for all of that. That three point

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seven billion dollars that helps the egg
industry and bug control, that number just

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went to priceless. These animals are
very much worth protecting, which means that

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we need to protect their habitats as
well. Noise and light pollution, pesticides

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and wind turbines are some of the
biggest hazards to bats. While some bats

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have adapted to street lights and will
catch as many bugs as hang out there,

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others have not. A study was
done on the effects that light pollution

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has on the lesser horseshoe bat by
Emma Stone, a PhD student at the

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University of Bristol in the UK.
Doctor Stone is a researcher at the University

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School of biological sciences. Now,
I'm not going to go through the entire

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setup of the study or we'd be
here all night, and I have other

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things that I need to talk about, but I do want to sum up

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the findings. When the lights were
turned on in a known commuter path used

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by bats, forty two percent flew
through the lights, thirty percent reverse direction

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and left before they got to the
lights, seventeen percent flew over the hedgerows

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that were fully illuminated, nine percent
flew through the densest part of the hedgerows,

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and two percent flew in circles to
avoid the lights. Doctor Stone's team

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also observed bats flying between the lights
in darker areas, but then flying up

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and down repeatedly, as if trapped
by the lights. On nights where the

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lights were left off, the bats
began their nightly forage at twenty nine point

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nine minutes after sunset, but when
the lights were turned on, they began

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their forage at seventy eight point six
minutes after sunset. On the nights that

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the lights were on, the bats
never got used to it. They didn't

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go back to their normal activity or
timing all right, So what does this

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actually mean for the bats. The
results of this study suggest that light pollution

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may extend the routes that the bats
will take to their normal hunting grounds.

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This increased time could increase the energy
expended and put undue stress on the animals,

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and eventually this could impact their reproductive
success. Other studies have found that

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when roosts are exposed to artificial lights, the bats will either delay leaving the

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roost or not leave at all.
They may completely abandon that roost, and

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this also affects their feeding behavior away
from the roost. Noise is probably the

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worst type of pollution for humans and
animals, but noise invades our lives twenty

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four, seven, three sixty five. Many species of bat use echolocation to

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find food and avoid objects, and
even find one another. Noise pollution threatens

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their survival. It makes them less
active, and they often abandoned roots where

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noise pollution is high. This forces
more and more bats to move to areas

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that are quieter, and we're running
out of quiet areas. Several studies have

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been done on the ways that noise
and radio waves affect bats, and most

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of them come to the same conclusion. Much like light pollution, noise can

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confuse them and put them under more
drest than is necessary. Doctor Domnall Finch

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performed a two year study that was
funded by the Vincent Wildlife Trust on the

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effect of road noise on the horseshoe
bat. His team recorded road noise from

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a busy highway and took the recordings
into a natural bat habitat. They used

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both sonic and ultrasonic spectrum of traffic. They found that from twenty meters away

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from the noise, bat activity dropped
approximately two thirds. They also noticed that

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there was a reduction in feeding buzzes, meaning that the bats weren't feeding as

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well as they did before the noise. The sonic spectrum seemed to have the

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highest impact on bat activity. They
didn't necessarily think that the noise was jamming

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their echolocation, but rather that bats
were just trying to avoid the noise.

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At the end of the experiment,
doctor Finch's team surmised that road noise could

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potentially have a negative effect on habitat
quality, landscape connectivity, and population viability.

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Any one of these things impacts the
survival of the species. Pesticides also

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kill thousands of bats every year.
We poison the best pesticide that we have.

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If a bat eats its body weight
and bugs that have been sprayed with

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insecticides, they will also be poisoned. Put that on top of the fact

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that we're killing off their food source, and you can see how pesticide use

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can be a real problem for the
entire order. I'm putting an honorable mention

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in here on the wind turbines.
This form of clean energy is known to

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have negative impacts on several species,
but particularly on any species that flies.

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Birds and bats get caught in the
blades and die. It seems that every

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wind farm that I've ever had the
chance to visit has been littered with the

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mangled bodies of flying creatures. I'm
not entirely sure that the risks are worth

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the rewards when so many animals die. Bats don't have a lot of natural

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predators. Owls, hawks, and
snakes will eat bats. But the thing

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that is decimating the entire order is
white nose syndrome. White nose syndrome is

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a fungal infection that begins around the
animal's face then spreads to their body.

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Often, this disease disrupts their hibernation
and feeding patterns, essentially causing them to

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starve to death. Several hibernating bat
species have been affected to the point of

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near extinction by white nose syndrome.
People bring the fungus into the caves where

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the bats roost, and that's how
they get it. I'm not going to

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say a lot about it now,
but on the next Cause of Death one

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hundred seconds to midnight, you're going
to hear everything about white nose syndrome.

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Before I go on, we are
going to hear from this month's sponsors.

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Then I'll talk about diseases that bats
carry. During March of twenty twenty,

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I did what's so many of us
did during that time. I took up

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a new hobby. I decided that
I was going to propagate plants. I

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bought all kinds of seeds. I
had the idea that I could grow any

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kind of herb that I wanted,
and I would be able to use these

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herbs to do everything from infusing oils
to throwing them on some amazingly tasty meals.

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Well. I failed miserably. I
had no idea what I was doing,

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and most of my plants died.
I didn't know how to start them

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correctly. I didn't know how to
cut them correctly. So there I was

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with a bunch of empty pots,
starting over and over again and failing every

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00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:49.440
time. Then I found true Leaf
Market. True leaf offers seed packets,

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grow kits, and even planters for
roughly the same price that I was paying

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at the local stores. Seed packets
started about two forty and organic seeds start

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at two ninety nine. For the
last fifty years, True Leaf Market has

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offered a huge selection of non GMO
seeds, including vegetables, grains, flowers,

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cover crops, specialty seeds, sprouting
and microgreen seeds, and of course

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my favorite herbs. They offer heirlooms, organics, and hybrids of all kinds

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too. With super fast shipping and
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grow lights and raised garden beds in
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True Leaf Market is the place to
look for all your seed needs. Remember

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all those past failures that I had, well, True Leaf Market has my

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back with growing supplies and starter kits. Plus they have a ton of how

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to PDFs that I can download to
my computer. With all the info.

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I need to be successful with my
herb garden. I'm already more successful than

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I have ever been. I want
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This offer is only available through June
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have a great gardening season. Are
you a true crime advocate? Are you

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passionate about uncovering the truth and bringing
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paranormal and spooky tales? Then you
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twenty fifth to the twenty seventh In
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discussions, workshops, live podcasts,
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true crime sphere. Get your tickets
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ticket price. That's Truecrime Podcast Festival
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for fifteen percent off the ticket price. Special guests will include Julie Murray,

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Teranewell, and Call You or Landry
to name a few. I'll be there

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00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:08.240
representing another podcast that I'm involved with, True Consequences. Come by and meet

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00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:15.519
Eric Carter Landin and I. We
would love to meet you. While we

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threaten bats just by being human,
Bats threaten us just by being bats.

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Bats are natural reservoirs for several diseases
that are fatal to mankind. They carry

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rabies, NIPA virus, ebola,
sars, mirrors, lyssavirus, parasites,

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histoplasmosis, salmonellosis, your sinosis,
and a host of other diseases that can

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be fatal to humans. These diseases
can be transmitted by bites, scratches,

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mucous membrane exposure, or coming into
contact with guano, especially by breathing in

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dried guano. So the moral of
this story is don't pet the bats and

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stay away from their feces, watch
them fly, enjoy their hunts, but

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leave them alone. It's rare for
a bat to bite a human. They're

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not aggressive animals and will usually just
try to fly away. If you see

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a bat during the day, or
one that's acting erratically, don't touch it,

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call fish and wildlife to come and
take it. Okay, So if

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bats carry all these diseases, how
do they survive? Why don't they get

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sick and die? This is what
makes the bat a medical marvel. Bats

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have a gene structure that helps them
evade disease. They can modulate their own

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immune systems to essentially neutralize almost anything
that invades. Once the infection has been

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neutralized, they can turn off the
impending inflammation before it can damage the host.

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Way back in the beginning of this
podcast, I did am More Than

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You Ever Wanted to Know episode where
I explained how the human immune system worked.

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I talked about how inflammation is one
of the ways that the body finds

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off infection. One of our inflammatory
responses is fever. Our bodies try to

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burn the infection out, but fever
can also harm us. Many people die

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because their fever spikes too high.
A prolonged fever of over one hundred and

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three is considered critical, and unless
that fever comes down quickly, our own

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immune response can do irreparable damage to
our internal organs the brain in particular.

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Bats can shut that immune response down
as soon as the pathogen is neutralized by

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their immune system, so they won't
spike a dangerously high fever. What's even

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more extraordinary is the immune system of
a bat can evolve as quickly as the

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virus that's invading. This amazing mechanism
is coded into their DNA. Researchers have

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been studying bat DNA for several years, and understanding their immune system has helped

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create therapies for humans against the diseases
that they carry. Bats may also hold

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the secret to youthfulness. These critters
can live for up to forty years,

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and that makes them the longest lived
species of their size. Normally, the

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smaller the species, the shorter the
lifespan, but bats have evolved to evade

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that niggling problem too. A study
done by the Bat one K Consortium,

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a bat conservancy program, found that
certain genes related to aging are altered in

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the bat species. As we age, we accumulate junk in our bodies,

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dead cells with nowhere to go.
But bats have evolved to clean up the

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dead cells and dispose of them.
They throw out the trash. This is

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a process called autophagi. They also
maintain their telomeres. Telomeres are the caps

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on the ends of chromosomes. In
humans, these telomeres will gradually come undone.

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This leads to aging, but can
also lead to cancer in older people.

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Our bodies lose maintenance as we age, our immune systems weaken, and

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we are at risk of increased inflammation
our telomeres unravel. Humans are a mess

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the older we get. Bats,
on the other hand, up their immune

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system game as they get older.
Not only do they maintain their telomeres,

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but their immune system i'm stronger,
their mitochondria won't wreak havoc on their bodies.

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Research is ongoing into the genetics that
make the bats such a naturally healthy

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animal, but these phenomena could lead
to cures for many diseases in humans,

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including cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. There
are several ways that we can help bats

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survive. I've put a video in
the show notes that give step by step

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instructions on making a bath house for
your yard. I've also got an article

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in there that tells you what kind
of plants to put in your garden.

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The easiest way to help bats is
to shut off the lights at night.

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If you have a yard light,
don't leave it burning all night long,

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only use it when you need to
go outside. Keep the noise levels at

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your house down to a low roar. The less roar the better. If

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you keep cats, keep them in
at night. Don't let them roam near

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what could possibly be a bat habitat. Before doing any remedial work on an

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attic, check to make sure the
bats haven't begun to roost there. Many

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of the articles listed in the show
Notes are written by conservancy agencies. They

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00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:21.119
give some great advice on bats and
how we can all do our part to

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00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:29.400
save this magnificent order. It's ninety
seconds to midnight and the world's greatest asset

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00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:34.759
is being destroyed by a fungal disease
that is largely incurable by the encroachment of

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00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:44.599
wild lands and by technology, largely
they're being destroyed by man. This order

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00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:48.079
helps mankind in so many ways,
from pest control, to pollination, to

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00:29:48.200 --> 00:29:55.960
cures for diseases the plagus. If
we destroy the bat, do we destroy

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humankind. Please check the show notes
for ways that you can support Cause of

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00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:07.960
death one hundred seconds to midnight and
visit my amazing sponsor for this month,

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00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:14.119
True Leaf Market. The quality of
seeds that I received is remarkable. Some

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00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:19.279
of my little plants are potted already
and they have cover plants that will attract

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00:30:19.640 --> 00:30:26.240
bats. Go check them out.
Thank you all for listening, and I'll

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00:30:26.279 --> 00:30:30.160
see you in two weeks when I
give you the skinny a white nose syndrome.

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00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.279
Until then, go build a bath
house.