http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —Picnic saboteurs or valuable food source? While the humble mosquito is not welcome buzzing around and sharing viruses with humans, it has a valuable ecological role to play as a prey item for insectivorous bats, research contributed to by the University of Sydney has found. http://phys.org/news287308042.html Biology Thu, 09 May 2013 08:47:30 EST news287308042 A survey of bat activity in burned and unburned areas after a major wildfire in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains found no evidence of detrimental effects on bats one year after the fire. The findings suggest that bats are resilient to high-severity fire, and some species may even benefit from the effects of fire on the landscape. http://phys.org/news281808212.html Biology Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:00:09 EST news281808212 Greater conservation of threatened acacia trees is needed to preserve vulnerable species of rare insectivorous bats in Israel, according to new research by biologists at the University of Bristol. Dense areas of flourishing acacia trees are in decline due to increasing water stress and the encroachment of human activity into their ecosystem, but such trees represent the only habitat that supports some rare and endangered species of bat. http://phys.org/news280568153.html Biology Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:00:01 EST news280568153 Rodents hugely outnumber bats, but bats are more likely than rodents to carry viruses that can be transmitted between animals and humans, according to new research by Colorado State University disease ecologists. http://phys.org/news279361765.html Biology Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:30:06 EST news279361765 Research by US Forest Service scientists forecasts profound changes over the next 50 years in the summer range of the endangered Indiana bat. In an article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, Forest Service Southern Research Station researchers Susan Loeb and Eric Winters discuss the findings of one of the first studies designed to forecast the responses of a temperate zone bat species to climate change. http://phys.org/news278615285.html Biology Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:08:53 EST news278615285 BGI today announces the online publication in Science of the latest findings through genomic analysis of two distantly related bat species, the Black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) and David's Myotis (Myotis davidii). The work here provides new insight into the genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of flight and immunity of bats, and also opens the way for addressing major gaps into understanding of bat biology and provides new directions for future research. http://phys.org/news275229434.html Biology Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:00:04 EST news275229434 (Phys.org)—Of the two bat species known to visit the flowers of the cardon cactus in Baja California, one depends entirely on nectar and is highly specialized to feed from the flowers, which are adapted for pollination by bats. The other is an insect-eating bat best known for its ability to hear the footsteps of large insects and scorpions and capture them on the ground. http://phys.org/news274021346.html Biology Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:02:50 EST news274021346 Small bats have to emit higher-pitched squeaks than their bigger cousins for their sonar navigation systems to work equally well, scientists said Wednesday. http://phys.org/news272726774.html Biology Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:30:01 EST news272726774 Just as differences in song can be used to distinguish one bird species from another, the pips and squeaks bats use to find prey can be used to identify different species of bat. Now, for the first time, ecologists have developed a Europe-wide tool capable of identifying bats from their echolocation calls. http://phys.org/news263489458.html Biology Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:00:02 EST news263489458 The effect on bat populations of a deadly fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome may depend on how gregarious the bats are during hibernation, scientists have discovered. http://phys.org/news260527504.html Biology Tue, 03 Jul 2012 09:45:10 EST news260527504 A deadly fungus that has wiped out large populations of bats in North America has spread to a new species, the endangered gray bat, US wildlife officials said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news257516949.html Biology Tue, 29 May 2012 13:40:02 EST news257516949 The rate at which the rabies virus evolves in bats may depend heavily upon the ecological traits of its hosts, according to researchers at the University of Georgia, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. Their study, published May 17 in the journal PLoS Pathogens, found that the host's geographical location was the most accurate predictor of the viral rate of evolution. Rabies viruses in tropical and sub-tropical bat species evolved nearly four times faster than viral variants in bats in temperate regions. http://phys.org/news256566104.html Biology Fri, 18 May 2012 13:23:24 EST news256566104 (AP) -- Researchers found substantially more bats in several caves that were the first ones struck by white-nose syndrome, giving them a glimmer of hope amid a scourge that has killed millions of bats in North America. http://phys.org/news254069009.html Biology Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:43:38 EST news254069009 Abandoned army bunkers along the Jordan River have become a habitat for 12 indigenous bat species, three of which are already designated as endangered and two that are on the critical list. The bats were recently identified by a group of Tel Aviv University researchers who were granted access to the bunkers, spread out along a 60-mile-long stretch of land between the Sea of Galilee in the north of Israel to the Dead Sea's northern edge. http://phys.org/news253456121.html Biology Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:29:03 EST news253456121 A new publication from the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), 'Conservation and Management of Eastern Big-Eared Bats,' brings together the latest knowledge about eastern big-eared bats. Edited by SRS researcher Susan Loeb, University of Kentucky professor Michael Lacki, and Weyerhauser manager Darren Miller, the publication features proceedings from a 2010 symposium. http://phys.org/news250867639.html Biology Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:27:28 EST news250867639 Three new bat species have been discovered after an international team of scientists from the Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) embarked on a study in southern Indochina. http://phys.org/news234431590.html Biology Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:53:45 EST news234431590 Scientists have brought to life the batphone, launching a new smartphone app to monitor the world's bats. http://phys.org/news228107096.html Biology Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:05:33 EST news228107096 A group of researchers says the threat posed to bats by a fatal disease isn't just a threat to the animals but to American agriculture, one they believe farmers and consumers alike scarcely appreciate. http://phys.org/news221885589.html Biology Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:53:22 EST news221885589 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using acoustic lures and mist nets, scientists have been unable to catch any living sample of a rare bat species thought to be resident in Ireland. http://phys.org/news216386138.html Biology Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:16:27 EST news216386138 Bats tend to have a bad reputation. They sleep all day, party at night, and are commonly thought to be riddled with rabies. A study by University of Calgary researchers has confirmed that bats are not as disease-ridden as the stigma suggests. http://phys.org/news215693675.html Biology Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:54:45 EST news215693675 Scientists and conservation groups filed a formal request today asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if little brown bats, once the most common bat species in the Northeast, need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of a fast-spreading, lethal disease called white-nose syndrome. The disease has already killed more than a million bats in the United States and scientists say it could wipe out little brown bats in the Northeast within the next two decades. http://phys.org/news212067543.html Biology Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:00:01 EST news212067543 (PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of a rare bat species in a tiny fragment of rainforest surrounded by an oil palm plantation has demonstrated that even small areas of forest are worth saving. http://phys.org/news208428082.html Biology Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:41:35 EST news208428082 Like most infectious diseases, rabies can attack several species. However, which species are going to be infected and why turns out to be a difficult problem that represents a major gap in our knowledge of how diseases emerge. A paper just published in the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Daniel G. Streicker, a PhD student at the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology, has begun to close that knowledge gap. http://phys.org/news200225101.html Biology Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:00:02 EST news200225101 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sometime in the last 30,000 years or so, two separate bat species colonized the Caribbean and converged on islands in the southern Lesser Antilles. One came from Mexico while the other traveled from northern South America. http://phys.org/news194541053.html Biology Mon, 31 May 2010 16:11:21 EST news194541053 A leading bat expert with the USDA Forest Service's Southern Research Station today identified nine bat species in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee that she believes are most threatened by white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungus that kills bats and appears to be rapidly spreading south from the northeastern United States. Station Research Ecologist Susan Loeb, Ph.D. says WNS has been confirmed in Tennessee, and she says it is just a matter of time before the fungus is detected in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina. http://phys.org/news189863996.html Biology Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:00:23 EST news189863996 (PhysOrg.com) -- Not just birds, but also a few species of bats face a long journey every year. Researchers at Princeton University in the U.S. and at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany studied the migratory behaviour of the largest extant family of bats, the so-called "Vespertilionidae" with the help of mathematical models. They discovered that the migration over short as well as long distances of various kinds of bats evolved independently within the family. http://phys.org/news177948336.html Biology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:06:17 EST news177948336 Scientists from Texas are batty over a new discovery which could lead to the single most important medical breakthrough in human history -- significantly longer lifespans. The discovery, featured on the cover of the July 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that proper protein folding over time in long-lived bats explains why they live significantly longer than other mammals of comparable size, such as mice. http://phys.org/news165576476.html Chemistry Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:28:34 EST news165576476