We FINALLY Understand Why Bats Live So Long

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A recent discovery suggests that bats biology may be the key to longer healthier lives. That power may come from their ability for flight and mean they shrug off diseases usually fatal to humans. Can bats help humans live longer?

#biology #science #bats #medicine #nature

Chapters:

00:00 The Amazing Biology Of The Bat
1:15 How Bats Survive Disease
3:39 Bechstein's Bats "Immortal" Bats
4:50 Ad Read
5:00 How Can Bat Biology Help Humans
10:35 Why Haven't Other Mammals Evolved To Have These Traits?
11:57 How Can We Apply These Learnings Into Modern Medicine?

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[rogerstone]

"We finally understand why bats live so long" - and then a list of things we DON'T fully understand about the perplexing biology of bats. Still fascinating, but the answer you promised is... still speculative.

[heinrichhenry]

Why have I only learned about bat‘s echo location in school, but never their resistance against diseases and aging??? This seems so much more impressive to me

[davidwoods]

The immune system may not be directly responsible for the longevity. He mentioned in the last 5 minutes that bats have better DNA validation. Just having that may lead to the longer life. DNA validation is the running theory on why elephants and whales live so long and lack cancer.

[mikefiatx]

Mice eat about 15 times a day, bats eat twice a day between dusk and dawn. Maybe the bat goes into Autophagy due to not eating. Autophagy is known to repair human cells.

[Gigus]

I work under someone who has a doctorate in mammology/ecology and he specializes in bats, so I feel the need to correct some information on this video if you are interested in learning about bats.

Firstly, bats are indeed as susceptible to disease as other animals. Currently they are more susceptible than other species and many of them are at risk of becoming extinct. White-Nose syndrome is a disease affecting all bat species caused by a fungus which was first seen in 2016. It has a mortality rate of over 90% and kills bats mostly by disrupting their hibernation, leading to them using vital fat reserves and dying of starvation. In severe cases it can cause them to be unable to breathe due to covering the rostrum or cause wing damage as the fungus actually penetrates tissues. Bats are not immortal, they are in severe risk if a cure isn't found.

Secondly, the postulate that he is referring to with body size and lifespan is definitely something that we see a lot happen in biology, but as with anything else there are major exceptions to these patterns. The naked mole rat is the most extreme example I can think of because they can live up to 30 years, when compared to their most related extant cousins, all rodents which have lifespans of years in some species. Bats are very, very distant from rodents, they are closer to whales, all carnivores, giraffe, horse, etc than to us which all have lifespans similar to bats. We are closer to rodents than rodents are to bats. Phylogeny can be a better way to understand lifespans in animals because in most cases closely related species tend to have longer (K selected) lifespans or shorter (R selected) lifespans. Like anything though there are always exceptions that we don't understand.

[AlEndo]

One fascinating additional issue, not addressed in this video: maximal metabolic capacity. Several years ago, a book, "Power, Sex and Suicide" by Mark Lane addressed a fascinating phenomenon, having to do with "excess" mitochondrial capacity. If you look at the weight vs. longevity graph, birds live much longer than "expected." A finch smaller than a mouse lives 30 years, and 3 lb. parrots can live 90. Turns out a trained endurance athlete can increase his/her metabolic rate with exercise by a factor of 2.5. A bird can do a lot more than 20. This "excess" reduces the generation of reactive oxidative chemicals that are detrimental to health and longevity. I wonder how bats do in terms of "mitochondrial reserve."

[Michal_Kosakowski]

Now it makes sense why Batman sounds like he has a serious permanent throat infection, and never dies.

[talktomer]

You're not taking into consideration that humans show the exact same temperatures while jogging or practicing other aerobic this might provide another reason for why a daily exercise routine is so

[b.a.erlebacher]

I know of two age records for bats, one (39) from Alberta, Canada, and the other (41) from Russia. It would be interesting to know if microbats from warm climates, that don't spend half their lives hibernating, are also of comparable length. Btw, the Alberta record was from a living wild bat that had been banded as an adult, so could be even older.

[andykaufman]

I just thought of a great movie idea. Researchers are trying to create life extending science for humans and create human vampires instead. 28 Days move over, 33 Nights is the new hotness.

[higherresolution]

You missed the biology of birds. A rat who lives about 3 years has the same body weight and high metabolic rate as a pigeon. But the lifespan of pigeons is 35 years. And they tend to never look old.

Instead of carnosine made in the liver from two amino acids, (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) as an endogenous anti-glycation agent, birds manufacture anserine, which is 7 times more powerful an anti-glycation agent as carnosine.

[ogobi]

I had very severe septic and cardiac shock that caused what you referred to, an over-excitation of my immune system, among other things, as I went through the process from suffering to treatment to healing. There was severe damage to my organs, including irreversible damage to my spleen, loss of function in half my left kidney, and it devoured my aortic and mitral valves. I was on dialysis with multiple organ failure and coded out 4 times before I they could get me onto the operating table. I am so lucky to be here today and I am very grateful to the amazing people who saved my life. At the time they specifically mentioned that it was my body's immune response that was causing me the worst issues, especially post-op when I was otherwise expected to be starting to recover. They even likened it to a "cytokine storm" and said it was causing my liver and kidneys to make toxic compounds (and do other stuff I didn't quite understand) and not recover properly. Fascinating stuff fore sure. Thanks for the vid and good work.

[kriegmesserdclxvi]

Makes sense for an animal that lives in large colonies to evolve greater resistance to social contact diseases.

[gtd]

Subscribed!! I love it. My interest in longevity biology naturally lead me into an interest in bats long before covid outbreak. What delight to see a basic summary of all I have read over many years into one short video. Thanks for making these facts about these remarkable creatures and the interplay between disease and the immune system widely available and more accessible to the public. You now have another regular viewer!

[philclancaster]

My late father remembered seeing syphilis being treated with malaria at the psychiatric hospital where he worked in Sussex, maybe late 1950's or early 1960's

[MrHeuvaladao]

Bats are like mr. Burns. They have so many diseases that one ends up fighting another, thus leaving the host alone for living long. 😂😂😂

[Italianjedi]

I’ve always loved bats, and this cements my desire to help them.

[JDM_Fanatic]

As someone that has been around since the 1300's after a cave exploration tour, I can agree that these little bastards are immortal.

[skybluskyblueify]

Bombing bats help to spread rabies rather than eliminate the threat to us. Before the bats were concentrated in one area, after the bomb those that survive fly off to new locations .

Another reason why bats have special immune systems is that they range far and wide and come into contact with many more animal species. Since many live in large concentrations they need to be versatile in how they handle diseases.

[waxon]

Thank you Dr Ben for promoting Planet Wild. Their videos of collaborative land/habitat restoration Permaculture techniques and the subsequent successes are fantastic.