Issued on: 26/08/2021 -
Experts are studying the exceptional longevity of bats in the hope of discovering benefits for humans Greg WOOD AFP/File
Noyal-Muzillac (France) (AFP)
In the fictional links he drew between immortal vampires and bats, Dracula creator Bram Stoker may have had one thing right.
"Maybe it's all in the blood," says Emma Teeling, a geneticist studying the exceptional longevity of bats in the hope of discovering benefits for humans.
The University College Dublin researcher works with the charity Bretagne Vivante to study bats living in rural churches and schools in Brittany, western France.
"We're taking a little bit of blood, but rather than us being the vampires to the bats we're making them give us their secrets," she says.
Those secrets are tantalising.
Adaptations made by bats that make them interesting to science John SAEKI AFP
Bats not only live longer than other animals of their size, they also stay healthy longer and can harbour pathogens like Ebola or coronaviruses without getting sick.
Teeling, who outlined her research to AFP in an interview reproduced here in edited form, focuses on long-lived Greater Mouse-eared bats.
The aim is to discover the key to longer, healthier lives for people.
"I firmly believe it lies in studying bats," she says.
- What's so special about bats? -
Typically in nature there is a pattern -- nearly a law -- that small things live very fast and die young as a consequence of a really fast metabolism.
Bats are unique, they are some of the smallest of all mammals, yet they can live for an extraordinarily long time. They seem to have evolved mechanisms to slow down the ageing process.
Noyal-Muzillac (France) (AFP)
In the fictional links he drew between immortal vampires and bats, Dracula creator Bram Stoker may have had one thing right.
"Maybe it's all in the blood," says Emma Teeling, a geneticist studying the exceptional longevity of bats in the hope of discovering benefits for humans.
The University College Dublin researcher works with the charity Bretagne Vivante to study bats living in rural churches and schools in Brittany, western France.
"We're taking a little bit of blood, but rather than us being the vampires to the bats we're making them give us their secrets," she says.
Those secrets are tantalising.
Adaptations made by bats that make them interesting to science John SAEKI AFPBats not only live longer than other animals of their size, they also stay healthy longer and can harbour pathogens like Ebola or coronaviruses without getting sick.
Teeling, who outlined her research to AFP in an interview reproduced here in edited form, focuses on long-lived Greater Mouse-eared bats.
The aim is to discover the key to longer, healthier lives for people.
"I firmly believe it lies in studying bats," she says.
- What's so special about bats? -
Typically in nature there is a pattern -- nearly a law -- that small things live very fast and die young as a consequence of a really fast metabolism.
Bats are unique, they are some of the smallest of all mammals, yet they can live for an extraordinarily long time. They seem to have evolved mechanisms to slow down the ageing process.
Bats not only live longer than other animals of their size, they also stay healthy longer Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP
It's not eternal youth -- everything dies and ageing has to catch up with you, but the rate of ageing is much slower in bats, their health span is much longer.
Think of a centenarian who is really healthy until the last few weeks of their life. That's what we want and it's what the bats have.
- How do you extract their secret? -
Nobody knew what was happening to bats as they age.
The only way you age a bat is to look at the bones in their fingers, if the joints are not yet fused, that bat is still a baby, once they're fused it is an adult.
But since 2010 Bretagne Vivante has put a little microchip like you would a dog or a cat, it's called a pit tag, under the skin of these bats when they are babies.
It's not eternal youth -- everything dies and ageing has to catch up with you, but the rate of ageing is much slower in bats, their health span is much longer.
Think of a centenarian who is really healthy until the last few weeks of their life. That's what we want and it's what the bats have.
- How do you extract their secret? -
Nobody knew what was happening to bats as they age.
The only way you age a bat is to look at the bones in their fingers, if the joints are not yet fused, that bat is still a baby, once they're fused it is an adult.
But since 2010 Bretagne Vivante has put a little microchip like you would a dog or a cat, it's called a pit tag, under the skin of these bats when they are babies.
Every year, Bretagne Vivante carries out an annual checkup on a colony of Greater Mouse-eared bats in western France
Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP
Every year we come back to these roosts where the females give birth and we catch the entire colony, we take a little bit of wing, a little bit of blood, and we go back to my lab in Ireland and we look at what has changed as they age, tracking a few biomarkers of ageing.
- What are you looking for? -
We look at these things called telomeres: on the end of every one of your chromosomes in your cells you have these protective caps -- like the bumper on a car -- and every time your cells replicate, it gets shorter and shorter.
They get really short, the cell should self-destruct but sometimes it stays around and becomes old, potentially driving the ageing process.
But in the longest-lived bats like Greater Mouse-eared bats, the telomeres do not shorten with age. They can protect their DNA.
We sequenced genes from young, middle-aged and older bats and what we found was extraordinary -- they increase their ability to repair their DNA with age and repair the damage that living causes. Ours decreases.
As we age, we get arthritis, we suffer from inflammation, the bats don't seem to do this and the question is how?
So we found that they repair damage to their DNA and they are also able to modulate their immune response, keeping it balanced between antiviral and anti-inflammatory responses.
When you look at Covid-19 for example, what kills somebody is this over-excited immune response. In Dublin, we did an experiment looking at antiviral and anti-inflammatory cytokines and found that if a human with a bat's immune profile was hospitalised they wouldn't end up on a ventilator. If it is the other way around, so more like a mouse, they end up on a ventilator.
We share the same genes as bats, with slight tweaks and modifications. Imagine if we find the little controlling gene that regulates these effects, we could then make a drug to mimic it in humans.
- How long will it take? -
I would have said 10 years, but look how fast everything is going now.
People are really interested in looking at bats to find answers, there's been a huge speed up.
We sequenced the genome, that was the first step, then we have this field data and we're working with labs all around the world who are developing the cellular tools required.
We have to keep going and believe it's possible.
© 2021 AFP
Every year we come back to these roosts where the females give birth and we catch the entire colony, we take a little bit of wing, a little bit of blood, and we go back to my lab in Ireland and we look at what has changed as they age, tracking a few biomarkers of ageing.
- What are you looking for? -
We look at these things called telomeres: on the end of every one of your chromosomes in your cells you have these protective caps -- like the bumper on a car -- and every time your cells replicate, it gets shorter and shorter.
They get really short, the cell should self-destruct but sometimes it stays around and becomes old, potentially driving the ageing process.
But in the longest-lived bats like Greater Mouse-eared bats, the telomeres do not shorten with age. They can protect their DNA.
We sequenced genes from young, middle-aged and older bats and what we found was extraordinary -- they increase their ability to repair their DNA with age and repair the damage that living causes. Ours decreases.
As we age, we get arthritis, we suffer from inflammation, the bats don't seem to do this and the question is how?
So we found that they repair damage to their DNA and they are also able to modulate their immune response, keeping it balanced between antiviral and anti-inflammatory responses.
When you look at Covid-19 for example, what kills somebody is this over-excited immune response. In Dublin, we did an experiment looking at antiviral and anti-inflammatory cytokines and found that if a human with a bat's immune profile was hospitalised they wouldn't end up on a ventilator. If it is the other way around, so more like a mouse, they end up on a ventilator.
We share the same genes as bats, with slight tweaks and modifications. Imagine if we find the little controlling gene that regulates these effects, we could then make a drug to mimic it in humans.
- How long will it take? -
I would have said 10 years, but look how fast everything is going now.
People are really interested in looking at bats to find answers, there's been a huge speed up.
We sequenced the genome, that was the first step, then we have this field data and we're working with labs all around the world who are developing the cellular tools required.
We have to keep going and believe it's possible.
© 2021 AFP
From the shadows: the secret, threatened lives of bats
Issued on: 26/08/2021
Issued on: 26/08/2021
A colony of Greater Mouse-eared bats in western France undergoes an annual check-up to help understand and safeguard the protected species
Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP
Noyal-Muzillac (France) (AFP)
It could be a scene from a bad horror movie: Torchlights slice through the darkness inside a church in western France as the building echoes with the shrieks of hundreds of bats.
But these creatures of the night are scaring no one.
They are having their annual check-up, as scientists try to unravel the secrets of an animal whose fiendish reputation has eclipsed its many gifts to the world.
Dozens of Greater Mouse-eared bats are passed from hand to hand -- gloved to avoid a bite -- by volunteers and scientists in Saint Martin's church at Noyal-Muzillac, in Brittany.
Noyal-Muzillac (France) (AFP)
It could be a scene from a bad horror movie: Torchlights slice through the darkness inside a church in western France as the building echoes with the shrieks of hundreds of bats.
But these creatures of the night are scaring no one.
They are having their annual check-up, as scientists try to unravel the secrets of an animal whose fiendish reputation has eclipsed its many gifts to the world.
Dozens of Greater Mouse-eared bats are passed from hand to hand -- gloved to avoid a bite -- by volunteers and scientists in Saint Martin's church at Noyal-Muzillac, in Brittany.
How bats are an integral part of the planet's ecosystems
John SAEKI AFP
Each bat is painstakingly examined, its sex, height and weight noted, its blood taken, teeth checked for wear, translucent wings stretched out and inspected.
A male pup, born just a few weeks ago in the church rafters, is hanging upside down by its claws in a tube placed on a weighing scale: 19.7 grams (0.7 ounces).
Once the physical assessment is finished, the latest addition to the colony is implanted with a tag, no bigger than a grain of rice.
"They put a little microchip like you would a dog or a cat, it's called a pit tag, under the skin on these bats when they are babies and they release them," said Emma Teeling, head of zoology at University College Dublin.
Each bat is painstakingly examined, its sex, height and weight noted, its blood taken, teeth checked for wear, translucent wings stretched out and inspected.
A male pup, born just a few weeks ago in the church rafters, is hanging upside down by its claws in a tube placed on a weighing scale: 19.7 grams (0.7 ounces).
Once the physical assessment is finished, the latest addition to the colony is implanted with a tag, no bigger than a grain of rice.
"They put a little microchip like you would a dog or a cat, it's called a pit tag, under the skin on these bats when they are babies and they release them," said Emma Teeling, head of zoology at University College Dublin.
At Saint Martin's church in Noyal-Muzillac, Brittany, volunteers and scientists painstakingly examine each bat
Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP
This is a ritual that has been repeated every year for a decade by the organisation Bretagne Vivante, which captures and checks the entire colony to help understand and safeguard this protected dark-furred species.
Why lavish so much attention on such a maligned creature?
Because they are one of the world's most endangered animals -- threatened by habitat loss and by human persecution.
- Seeds and super powers -
Long demonised as fanged monsters or vectors of disease, the pandemic has done little to improve bats' image, after the World Health Organization said the coronavirus likely originated in the animals.
Rodrigo Medellin, who co-leads the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bat Group, said he has never worked harder to defend them.
But the only mammal capable of flight has a lot more to offer than viruses and vampire legends.
If you have ever sipped coffee, eaten a taco or worn a cotton t-shirt, you can thank bats, Medellin told AFP.
This is a ritual that has been repeated every year for a decade by the organisation Bretagne Vivante, which captures and checks the entire colony to help understand and safeguard this protected dark-furred species.
Why lavish so much attention on such a maligned creature?
Because they are one of the world's most endangered animals -- threatened by habitat loss and by human persecution.
- Seeds and super powers -
Long demonised as fanged monsters or vectors of disease, the pandemic has done little to improve bats' image, after the World Health Organization said the coronavirus likely originated in the animals.
Rodrigo Medellin, who co-leads the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bat Group, said he has never worked harder to defend them.
But the only mammal capable of flight has a lot more to offer than viruses and vampire legends.
If you have ever sipped coffee, eaten a taco or worn a cotton t-shirt, you can thank bats, Medellin told AFP.
Climate change is increasingly taking its toll -- flying foxes in Australia have been devastated by heatwaves
Greg WOOD AFP/File
Fruit-eating species help disperse seeds from tree to tree, while some bats are indispensable pollinators.
Some species can swallow half their weight in insects each night, according to Bat Conservation International.
"They are the best natural pesticide," said Medellin, of Mexico's Universidad Nacional Autonoma, adding that even tequila can be traced to millions of years of bat pollination of the agave plant.
"The benefits we receive from them are so huge and so different that they touch every day of our life," said Medellin.
But it is not just what bats do that makes them special.
They also have an array of innate talents that fascinate scientists.
Engineers are inspired by their natural sonar, enabling them to fly low and find their way thanks to echolocation.
And yes, they can harbour viruses like coronaviruses or Ebola. But why do they not fall ill?
Bats also seem to have evolved a way to slow down the ageing process, said Teeling, whose lab in Ireland is exploring how these creatures stay healthy almost until the end of their lives.
Little animals typically "live fast, die young", she said, explaining that a reduced body size often means a fast metabolism: the lifespan of a mouse is often measured in months, while a bowhead whale can live for over a century.
Although little animals typically 'live fast, die young', bats seem to have evolved a way to slow down the ageing process Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP
"In nature, when you look at the body size of something, you can predict how long they are going to live for," she said.
Not bats.
The Greater Mouse-eared Bats that Teeling and her colleagues study do not exceed eight centimetres (just over three inches), but they can live up to 10, or even 20 years.
In 2005, researchers in Siberia captured a Brandt's bat that had been tagged 41 years earlier, estimating it had lived nearly 10 times longer than expected for its size.
- 'Ecological traps' -
From the tiny two-gram "bumblebee bat", to the giant Philippine flying fox with its 1.5-metre (five-foot) wingspan, bats make up a fifth of all terrestrial mammals.
But some 40 percent of the 1,321 species assessed on the IUCN's Red List are now classified as endangered.
"We are losing species all over the world," said Julie Marmet, chiropterologist (bat expert) at the National Museum of Natural History in France.
Bats have been "resilient" for 50 million years, she told AFP, but today's changes are "far too fast for species to adapt".
Human actions are to blame, as with the biodiversity crisis gripping the entire planet -- which will come under the spotlight at the IUCN congress in early September.
Deforestation and habitat loss is the primary driver.
Many species live in trees and the 40 percent that live in caves depend largely on forests for foraging, said Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International.
Climate change is also increasingly taking its toll.
Fruit-eating species help disperse seeds from tree to tree, while some bats are indispensable pollinators.
Some species can swallow half their weight in insects each night, according to Bat Conservation International.
"They are the best natural pesticide," said Medellin, of Mexico's Universidad Nacional Autonoma, adding that even tequila can be traced to millions of years of bat pollination of the agave plant.
"The benefits we receive from them are so huge and so different that they touch every day of our life," said Medellin.
But it is not just what bats do that makes them special.
They also have an array of innate talents that fascinate scientists.
Engineers are inspired by their natural sonar, enabling them to fly low and find their way thanks to echolocation.
And yes, they can harbour viruses like coronaviruses or Ebola. But why do they not fall ill?
Bats also seem to have evolved a way to slow down the ageing process, said Teeling, whose lab in Ireland is exploring how these creatures stay healthy almost until the end of their lives.
Little animals typically "live fast, die young", she said, explaining that a reduced body size often means a fast metabolism: the lifespan of a mouse is often measured in months, while a bowhead whale can live for over a century.
Although little animals typically 'live fast, die young', bats seem to have evolved a way to slow down the ageing process Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP"In nature, when you look at the body size of something, you can predict how long they are going to live for," she said.
Not bats.
The Greater Mouse-eared Bats that Teeling and her colleagues study do not exceed eight centimetres (just over three inches), but they can live up to 10, or even 20 years.
In 2005, researchers in Siberia captured a Brandt's bat that had been tagged 41 years earlier, estimating it had lived nearly 10 times longer than expected for its size.
- 'Ecological traps' -
From the tiny two-gram "bumblebee bat", to the giant Philippine flying fox with its 1.5-metre (five-foot) wingspan, bats make up a fifth of all terrestrial mammals.
But some 40 percent of the 1,321 species assessed on the IUCN's Red List are now classified as endangered.
"We are losing species all over the world," said Julie Marmet, chiropterologist (bat expert) at the National Museum of Natural History in France.
Bats have been "resilient" for 50 million years, she told AFP, but today's changes are "far too fast for species to adapt".
Human actions are to blame, as with the biodiversity crisis gripping the entire planet -- which will come under the spotlight at the IUCN congress in early September.
Deforestation and habitat loss is the primary driver.
Many species live in trees and the 40 percent that live in caves depend largely on forests for foraging, said Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International.
Climate change is also increasingly taking its toll.
In the United States, thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats have been killed by hypothermia after being lured by milder winters into abandoning their habitual migration south
JEFF HAYNES AFP/File
Flying foxes in Australia have been devastated by heatwaves, while in the United States thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats have been killed by hypothermia.
Lured by milder winters into abandoning their habitual migration south, many of these little bats have taken to staying in their roosts under bridges in Texas during the cooler months.
These bridges over waterways look like "restaurants" for bats, said Frick, but it also represents an "ecological trap".
During the last winter, there was a particularly cold snap in Texas.
"Thousands and thousands of bats died during that big freeze," she said.
- Hunted and harassed -
Modern human infrastructure has become a perilous obstacle course.
Already victims of collisions with cars, they must now avoid wind turbines -- studies suggest half a million are killed every year in the US either by the blades or the deadly effects of the forceful air movement.
Even the automatic motion sensors that illuminate the stairways of apartment blocks can turn a short stopover for migrating pipistrelles into a waking nightmare.
Flying foxes in Australia have been devastated by heatwaves, while in the United States thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats have been killed by hypothermia.
Lured by milder winters into abandoning their habitual migration south, many of these little bats have taken to staying in their roosts under bridges in Texas during the cooler months.
These bridges over waterways look like "restaurants" for bats, said Frick, but it also represents an "ecological trap".
During the last winter, there was a particularly cold snap in Texas.
"Thousands and thousands of bats died during that big freeze," she said.
- Hunted and harassed -
Modern human infrastructure has become a perilous obstacle course.
Already victims of collisions with cars, they must now avoid wind turbines -- studies suggest half a million are killed every year in the US either by the blades or the deadly effects of the forceful air movement.
Even the automatic motion sensors that illuminate the stairways of apartment blocks can turn a short stopover for migrating pipistrelles into a waking nightmare.
As well as collisions with cars, wind turbines and even the automatic motion sensors that illuminate the stairways of apartment blocks can be perilous for bats
GUILLAUME SOUVANT AFP/File
Normally these matchbox-sized bats only fly at night, said Andrzej Kepel, of the Polish association Salamandra.
But when they try to continue with their migration after a couple of days in these stairways, they trigger the sensor and the lights turn on.
"So they land," said Kepel. Again and again they try to leave and every time the lights flick on, stopping them.
Their cries can attract others.
"After several days, there are hundreds of bats in the staircase and people are panicking," he said. Bats can end up starving to death.
Inside caves, they are still not safe.
Whether it is tourists shining torches or the incursions of those collecting bat guano to use as fertilizer, the slightest disturbance can be devastating.
Especially since most bat species only have one baby per year, unusually for such a small mammal, said Marmet.
Normally these matchbox-sized bats only fly at night, said Andrzej Kepel, of the Polish association Salamandra.
But when they try to continue with their migration after a couple of days in these stairways, they trigger the sensor and the lights turn on.
"So they land," said Kepel. Again and again they try to leave and every time the lights flick on, stopping them.
Their cries can attract others.
"After several days, there are hundreds of bats in the staircase and people are panicking," he said. Bats can end up starving to death.
Inside caves, they are still not safe.
Whether it is tourists shining torches or the incursions of those collecting bat guano to use as fertilizer, the slightest disturbance can be devastating.
Especially since most bat species only have one baby per year, unusually for such a small mammal, said Marmet.
Bats are one of the world's most endangered animals, threatened by habitat loss and human persecution
Roslan RAHMAN AFP/File
So "if there is a problem in a colony, it's over."
Hunted for meat or sport by people in Southeast Asia and Africa, they also fall prey to other animals.
In Jamaica, for example, cats have staked out the cave of a colony of critically endangered bats.
"We've documented within an hour cats taking about 20 bats, ripping their wings off and snacking on them," said Frick.
- Vampires to Vatican -
So who is frightening who?
Bats have not always had a bad reputation.
In Mayan culture they played a major role in the forming of the universe.
But in the Western world they have been unwittingly typecast as mascots of Halloween and horror films.
While just three types of bats in South America are (animal) blood-drinking "vampires", when Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula" in the 19th century it tarnished the reputation of the whole family.
"That is the moment bats began to be accused of being envoys of the devil, being evil, and filthy, and bringing diseases," said Medellin.
Batman was helpless to redress the balance.
Even Pope Francis last year likened people in a state of sin to being "like 'human bats' who can move about only at night".
But many of those who spend time with bats end up loving them.
So "if there is a problem in a colony, it's over."
Hunted for meat or sport by people in Southeast Asia and Africa, they also fall prey to other animals.
In Jamaica, for example, cats have staked out the cave of a colony of critically endangered bats.
"We've documented within an hour cats taking about 20 bats, ripping their wings off and snacking on them," said Frick.
- Vampires to Vatican -
So who is frightening who?
Bats have not always had a bad reputation.
In Mayan culture they played a major role in the forming of the universe.
But in the Western world they have been unwittingly typecast as mascots of Halloween and horror films.
While just three types of bats in South America are (animal) blood-drinking "vampires", when Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula" in the 19th century it tarnished the reputation of the whole family.
"That is the moment bats began to be accused of being envoys of the devil, being evil, and filthy, and bringing diseases," said Medellin.
Batman was helpless to redress the balance.
Even Pope Francis last year likened people in a state of sin to being "like 'human bats' who can move about only at night".
But many of those who spend time with bats end up loving them.
Bat benefits: Fruit-eating species help disperse seeds from tree to tree, while some bats are indispensable pollinators
Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP
"They are cute! We get attached to them," says Corentin Le Floch, of Bretagne Vivante.
In the church of Noyal-Muzillac, it's snack time and a Greater Mouse-eared bat is nibbling on a wriggling mealworm.
He gets a quick caress of his little pointy ears and then: freedom.
© 2021 AFP
"They are cute! We get attached to them," says Corentin Le Floch, of Bretagne Vivante.
In the church of Noyal-Muzillac, it's snack time and a Greater Mouse-eared bat is nibbling on a wriggling mealworm.
He gets a quick caress of his little pointy ears and then: freedom.
© 2021 AFP
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