Bats avoid collisions by calling less in a crowd
In the warm summer months, bats go about their business each night, flying and gobbling up insects (A benefit to us). Using echolocation (Making calls and listening for returning echoes to figure out where objects are) they can hunt and navigate around obstacles in total darkness, often in large groups. But if everybody is echolocating at once, how do bats pick out their own echoes? Ref. Source 1n.
Found: Neurons that orient bats toward destination
Bats - like humans - can find their favorite fruit stand (Or coffee shop) even when it’s hidden behind a screen or tall buildings. How? Scientists have now identified the neurons that point bats in the right direction, even when their destination is obscured. This could aid understanding of some aspects of Alzheimer’s. Ref. Source 6f.
A survival lesson from bats: Eating variety keeps species multiplying. A new study reveals that omnivorous New World noctilionoid bats, those species with diets including both plant and animal materials, produce more new species in the long run than specialized vegetarian or insectivorous species. Source 1t.
How bats carry viruses without getting sick. Bats are known to harbor highly pathogenic viruses like Ebola or Marburg and yet they do not show clinical signs of disease. Scientists find that in bats, an antiviral immune pathway called the STING-interferon pathway is dampened, and bats can maintain just enough defense against illness without triggering a heightened immune reaction.