In eastern culture, bats mean happiness, not evil creatures. At night, bats will fly out to prey on mosquitoes and insects, which is obviously beneficial to human beings. Bats look like mice in the zodiac. In ancient times, bats were regarded as synonymous with happiness and longevity, advocating heavenly stems and earthly branches. There are statues and costumes of bats in the designs of ancient Five Blessingg and Fushou Wandai.
Bat dung is also a precious Chinese medicine spermatorrhea sand. Ancient books such as Compendium of Materia Medica recorded that bat's functions include treating chronic cough, malaria, gonorrhea, convulsion, scrofula, golden sore and other diseases.
Bats were auspicious symbols in Qing Dynasty and Japan. But this concept changed completely after the invasion of western culture. For example, in Ching-Ying Lam's horror movies, there are many scenes of bats. The bat spirit that didn't appear in The Journey to the West appeared in Huluwa's cartoons.
In western culture, bats are described as evil creatures, and this nocturnal creature has become a symbol of vampires. Werewolves and bat vampires are bat scenes that often appear in western horror suspense themes. For example, bats can fly in Twilight and Batman.
So, why are bats in the two cultures so different? This is because there are many kinds of bats. In China, there are many bats, and many of them live under the eaves of farmers. In western pastoral areas, bats are considered as monsters that can infect cattle and sheep.
So are real bats good or bad?
Bats are the only mammals that have evolved the ability to fly, and the recipes of different bats are very complicated. Such as insects, pollen, blood, fish, etc. All of them are food for bats, which improves their viability. The number of bats is still relatively large among mammals, accounting for about 20%.
In addition, according to the research, the bat's immune system is different from other mammals, and it rarely shows symptoms. This is also the reason why it has become an invulnerable host but not extinct. There's one in the bat? Virus bank? Its urine and feces carry many highly diversified highly toxic viruses.
Scientists in China adopted different methods and found that bats were the ultimate source. The main host of this virus is the bat mentioned above.
20 17 A paper published in Viral Evolution holds that bats are the main hosts of coronavirus in the world. In this paper, a lot of data comparison and field analysis are carried out. Nearly 20,000 bats were compared with other animals, and it was found that bats carried the most coronavirus. Bats of different species and regions carry different viruses.
The image of China bats in the above article is mainly taken from domestic bats living under farmers' eaves, rather than chrysanthemum-headed bats in caves. Due to human interference, many kinds of bats are facing survival crisis. For example, in Palau, a honeymoon resort in the Pacific Ocean, there is a local specialty meal called. Fruit bat? . In Indonesia, local bat hunters will go to the caves where bats live and set up nets to catch bats. In third world countries, the meat of wild animals like bats is an important source of protein.
There are still many unknown areas in front of nature. Perhaps one day, human beings will discover the immune mechanism of bats, just like radar simulation, and create scientific and technological inventions that benefit human beings.