Back

Rats Snatching Bats Out of the Air and Eating Them–Researchers Got It on Video

72 points2 monthssmithsonianmag.com
zwnow2 months ago

Didn't think I'd ever read about a neighboring city of mine on HN. We're also the state that piloted using open source software for public offices in case that's interesting to someone. Yes, Germany goes further up north after Hamburg.

molteanu2 months ago
ardit332 months ago

Oh, dang.... the great 2030 pandemic is coming...

I don't think this bodes well for the future. Both rats and bats have been huge vectors of diseases. This is going to produce some kind of super virus that will be another middle age plague like pandemic.

echelon2 months ago

This probably isn't new behavior, simply something we're witnessing for the very first time.

We haven't observed orcas predate moose or primates, but the former has plenty of supporting evidence and the latter has probably happened at some point.

In any case, zoonotic reservoirs likely slosh around a lot more than we think before spillover events.

jacquesm2 months ago

2/3rds of all human pathogens originated from zoonotic spillover!

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8182890/

nephihaha2 months ago

We also pass on diseases to animals so it is a never-ending cycle.

nephihaha2 months ago

I agree. This has probably been happening for millions of years. Bats often live in dense colonies in caves and tree trunks with small exits making rat predation possible.

Some native Arctic peoples have traditions of killer whales eating people, although officially they have only killed people while in captivity. A person in a skin kayak would be easy prey for one.

thewtf2 months ago

[dead]

throwaway20462 months ago
Qem2 months ago

Now I wonder if Ratman would be a fourmidable enemy to Batman.

hamonrye2 months ago

[dead]

squeefers2 months ago

[dead]

Culonavirus2 months ago

> 13 confirmed kills

We got SOF rats before GTA6.

zombot2 months ago

SOF?

matheusmoreira2 months ago

Special Operations Forces.