A Viral Surprise at a Bat Cave

Send us Fan MailBats can carry several viruses that can kills humans. Some well understood – rabies, the deadliest virus of all, is transmitted directly from bats to people from bat bites. Other viruses, such as Hendra virus, are a little more mysterious and indirect in how they spread. And researchers are still unsure how viruses such as Ebola, Marburg and the coronavirus that caused Covid-19 get from bats to people.However, a team working in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda may have just gotten a big clue.Bosco Atukwatse, a Ugandan wildlife biologist working with the Kyambura Lion Project, set up solar-powered cameras near the mouth of Python Cave in the Maramagambo Forest in the park. He knew the cave was home to multitudes of Egyptian fruit bats and was hoping for pictures of leopards and spotted hyenas.What he got were dozens of images of animals hunting the bats. Birds, snakes, giant lizards called monitors, a very persistent leopard, monkeys, baboons, and a catlike animal called a genet all regularly hunted in the cave.This behavior was notable on its own. But the bats in this cave are also known to be infected with Marburg virus, a rare but deadly virus that can cause a hemorrhagic fever. Two visitors to the cave had been infected with Marburg, including a Dutch tourist who died in 2008 and a U.S. tourist.The findings don’t prove that animals who hunt bats are spreading Marburg, says Dr. Alex Braczkowski, Science Director of the Kyambura Lion Project, who reported the discovery on the open repository site Zenodo. They do, however, provide a starting point for possible further investigations.Listen as Alex and Bosco chat with One World, One Health host Maggie Fox about the bats, the animals that hunt them, and what it all might mean.