Social relationships help drive abnormal blood eating in vampire bats

You can probably imagine a vampire. Pale, sharp-fanged, blood-sucking undead creatures only thwarted by sunlight, religious paraphernalia, and garlic. They are troublesome creatures and are often the subject of favorite movies and books. Fortunately, they're just imaginary…or are they?

There are real vampires in this world bat world. Of the more than 1,400 species of bats currently described, three are known. eat only blood.

of common vampire bat, desmodus roundis the most abundant. Bats that live in the tropical forests of Central and South America eat different animalsThese include tapirs, mountain lions, penguins, and most recently domestic animals.

Feeding a blood meal is unusual for mammals and has resulted in many unique adaptations that facilitate its unusual lifestyle. Unlike other bats, Vampires can move on landit switches between two different gaits to circle its sleeping prey. There are receptors in the nose that detect heat. It helps them find the warm blood beneath their prey's skin. Finally, a combination of small incisions potentially made Self-sharpening fangsand Anticoagulants in saliva These bats can eat unsuspecting prey.

For me, As a behavioral ecologistHe is interested in how pathogens affect social behavior and vice versa, and the most interesting adaptations to the blood-feeding lifestyle can be observed in the social lives of vampire bats.

Vampire bats develop reciprocal relationships

Blood doesn't contain much nutrients, so vampire bats starve to death relatively quickly if they don't have food to eat. If it's a bat Return to roost hungryothers may also regurgitate a blood meal To get them through the night.

This kind of food sharing occurs not only between related bats, such as a mother and her offspring, but also between unrelated individuals. This observation has long puzzled evolutionary biologists. Why help someone who is not closely related to you?

Turns out to be a vampire bat Track who's feeding you and give back – If other bats have not been helpful in the past, then why not? In doing so, animals form complex social relationships maintained by low-cost social investments, such as cleaning and maintaining another animal's fur, called allogrooming, and high-cost social investments, such as sharing food. I will.

These relationships are comparable to those seen in primates, and some liken them to human friendships. Certainly, there are some similarities.

For example, humans raise the stakes when forming new relationships with others. Start with a social investment that doesn't cost much, such as sharing lunch, and wait to see how the other person reacts. If they don't reciprocate, the relationship may be doomed. But if your partner reciprocates, by sharing a little dessert, for example, your next investment might be even bigger. The stakes are gradually increased in a game of back-and-forth, and friendships develop until eventually larger social investments are required, such as offering a ride when the car breaks down.

Vampire bats do the same thing. When a stranger is introduced, it begins with a small fur-sweeping exchange to test the waters. If both partners keep reciprocating and upping the stakes, Eventually the relationship escalates Sharing food, this is a bigger effort.

Human relationships, both in sickness and in health

In my laboratory, we study how infectious diseases affect social behavior and human relationships. Vampire bats are an ideal research system for me and my colleagues, given their wide variety of social behaviors and the complexity of their social relationships.

How does illness affect the behavior of vampire bats? How do other bats behave towards sick bats? How does illness affect the formation and maintenance of social relationships? Will it be given?

Our laboratory simulates infection in bats using pathogen-derived molecules that stimulate immune responses. We have repeatedly found forms of passive social distancing in which sick people reduce their interactions with others. Same room same room, social call Or just spend time near others.

Importantly, these behavioral changes did not necessarily evolve to minimize the spread of disease to others. Rather, they are part of what biologists call a complex immune response. disease behavior. You can compare yourself to someone You can catch the flu while staying at home It's simply because they don't feel like going on an adventure. Even if such passive social distancing has not evolved to prevent infecting others, simply being sick and unable to interact with others will still reduce the spread of germs.

Interestingly, disease behavior can be suppressed. People do this all the time. so-called presentism Due to various pressures, I come to work despite my illness. Similarly, many people have suppressed symptoms of infectious diseases in order to fulfill some social obligation. Anyone with small children knows that when the whole family is going through something, you can't sit around without taking care of them, even if you feel pretty bad yourself. Probably.

Animals are no exception. they can suppress disease behavior When competing needs arise, such as caring for children or defending territory. Although vampire bats tend to reduce their social interactions with others when sick, Sick mothers will continue to groom their offspring The reverse is also true. Probably because the relationship between mother and daughter is especially important. Within groups of vampire bats, mothers and daughters are often the primary social relationships with each other.

Conflicts between humans and bats center around livestock.

Despite their many interesting adaptations and complex social lives, vampire bats are not universally admired. In fact, it is considered a pest in many parts of Central and South America because it can transmit the deadly rabies virus to livestock, causing considerable economic losses.

Before people introduced livestock into their habitat, vampire bats likely struggled to find food in the form of native prey species such as tapirs. Livestock is now the main food source. After all, why not eat something that is reliably present in the same place every night and is extremely abundant? As the population of vampire bats increaseslikely perpetuating the problem of rabies transmission.

Conflicts between farmers and vampires make sense, especially in small herds, where the loss of even one cow can seriously damage a farmer's livelihood. Culling campaigns use locally applied poisons It's called a blood-sucking agent, and it's basically a mixture of vaseline and rat poison. Bats are captured, the paste is applied to their fur, and they are carried to roosts, where other bats ingest the poison during social interactions. Interestingly, a large Culling may not be very effective in reducing rabies Spread.

The focus is now shifting to large-scale vaccination of cattle and vaccination of vampire bats themselves. researchers are equal Considering infectious vaccines: They could. Genetically modify the herpes virusvery common in vampire bats, carries the rabies gene and vaccinates widespread populations of vampire bats.

Whatever methods are used to defuse conflicts between vampire bats and humans, increased empathy for these misunderstood animals can only help. After all, if you stick your head into a hollow tree full of vampire bats, assuming you can stand the smell of digested blood, keep that in mind. You are looking at a complex network of individual friendships between animals who care deeply for each other.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read original article here.