NYT Video from a national park in Uganda depicted a parade of predatory species feeding on and dispersing fruit bats that are known natural reservoirs of infectious diseases. Bats carry an assortment of viruses, including infectious diseases that have jumped into humans in a process known as zoonotic spillover. In some cases, the aerial mammals have infected people directly. But in other cases, scientists believe, bats have passed deadly viruses onto other animal species, which subsequently infected humans.
A remarkable new video from Uganda provides direct visual evidence of many different wild animals interacting with wild bats, revealing just how many opportunities there are for potentially deadly bat viruses to jump into new species. It was published along with a paper posted online on Monday but not yet peer reviewed.
On Feb. 17, Bosco Atukwatse, a young Ugandan wildlife biologist working with the Kyambura Lion Project, set up solar-powered camera traps near the mouth of Python Cave in the Maramagambo Forest, in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. He was collecting data about leopards and spotted hyenas in the forest.