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airehead
Oompa Loofah
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Joined: 12 Nov 2002
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Location: Between here and eternity...
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 Posted: 03/18/05 - 00:14 Post subject: Cows are easy and other findings...
Who'd ever thought to put a bat on a treadmill??
| Quote: | As if nature really needed to endow vampire bats with anything more unusual than the ability to fly and a propensity to drink blood, the creatures have been found to sprint along the ground, too.
All the better to sneak up on a victim, scientists say.
A new study found fleet-footed vampire bats can break into a loping run on all fours, at least when coaxed on a treadmill.
Bad news for cows
Bats are the only mammals that fly. Scientists think they generally stopped running long ago, as evolution gave flight capabilities to their forelimbs. Most species of bats, if asked to run, can do little more than flop around like fish out of water.
Vampire bats must have regained the ability to run, says Cornell University researcher Daniel Riskin, who led the new experiments. The skill might have been useful for chasing down small, swift animals that wouldn't sit still for a feeding event, Riskin told LiveScience.
Thing is, the common vampire bat rarely chases small animals anymore. Instead, it feeds mostly on dozing cattle that have been introduced into the bats' range — mostly from northern Mexico down to Argentina and Chile — over the past few hundred years, Riskin said. In labs, a vampire bat will feed on anything — even a snake — but in the wild they prefer cows, whose blood they drink mostly at night while the livestock sleep.
"Cows just seem to be the easiest," he said.
On to the treadmill
Scientists knew previously that the legs of vampires were stronger than those of other bats, enabling them to crawl and hop. In the March 17 issue of the journal Nature, Riskin and his colleagues write: "The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) walks forwards, sideways and backwards, and initiates flight with a single vertical jump from standing." Researchers still don't know exactly why they can walk.
And nobody had ever documented bats doing the 4-yard dash.
To study this movement, captive bats were put on a treadmill — safely inside a Plexiglas cage — and photographed. At slow treadmill speeds, the bats walked in a manner similar to mice. When the treadmill was cranked up, the clever little mammals dutifully kept pace, using mostly their powerful forelimbs to reach speeds exceeding 2.7 miles per hour (1.2 meters per second).
"Bats with a little more room to maneuver can probably move twice that fast," Riskin said.
For the record, a reasonably fit human can run much more quickly.
The swift gait of the vampire bat is unlike that of any other animal, the study found. The scientists call it running "because it includes a notable aerial phase." You might want to jog across the room with a nice spring in your step to understand what that means.
Vampire bats, it seems, are over-evolved, now that their prey are just lumbering cattle.
"It's as if they were designed to chase race cars," Riskin said, "and they find themselves running after school buses." |
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youngrunner
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Location: warm and cozy in the computer chair
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 08:15 Post subject:
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RangerG
Bounty Hunter
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Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Posts: 7301
Location: Gmail Server Number 126
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 08:19 Post subject:
Wow... Who knew the Bats in my Belfry were so agile? 
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Laurie Ellen
Queenie
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Joined: 14 May 2002
Posts: 11286
Location: The Dark Side of the Moon
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 08:23 Post subject:
| RangerG wrote: | | Wow... Who knew the Bats in my Belfry were so agile? |
 And that's obviously where you keep all your hideous, (locked safely away) too! 
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gretriever
Hipster Doofus
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Joined: 16 Jul 2003
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 08:54 Post subject:
What, no "that story sucks" jokes yet? 
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MastrBrewr
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
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Joined: 24 Sep 2003
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 09:28 Post subject:
I just know this study was spawned by a drunken frat-party bet.
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airehead
Oompa Loofah
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Joined: 12 Nov 2002
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 10:34 Post subject:
| MastrBrewr wrote: | | I just know this study was spawned by a drunken frat-party bet. |
Or by Rob's mom....
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purple hayes
Frightened Inmate #2
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 10:53 Post subject:
BATS AREN'T BUGS!
/Calvin and Hobbes anyone?
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airehead
Oompa Loofah
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 11:48 Post subject:
| purple hayes wrote: | BATS AREN'T BUGS!
/Calvin and Hobbes anyone? |
Man, I miss those... 
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robp
Pyromaniac
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 12:12 Post subject:
| airehead wrote: |
Or by Rob's mom.... |
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omega lambda
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 12:18 Post subject:
I did my own independent study on cows over the last 30ish years or so, and I've discovered that due to evolutionary pressures, cows are going deaf. The cows used to look up at cars when they honked, but over time they've quit looking. They're going deaf.
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pokychick
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 12:21 Post subject:
| omega lambda wrote: | | I did my own independent study on cows over the last 30ish years or so, and I've discovered that due to evolutionary pressures, cows are going deaf. The cows used to look up at cars when they honked, but over time they've quit looking. They're going deaf. |
I don't know about this. Have you seen the Far Side cartoons?
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airehead
Oompa Loofah
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 13:00 Post subject:
| omega lambda wrote: | | I did my own independent study on cows over the last 30ish years or so, and I've discovered that due to evolutionary pressures, cows are going deaf. The cows used to look up at cars when they honked, but over time they've quit looking. They're going deaf. |
Evolutionarily speaking, you've heard one horn, you've heard them all.
And unless it is some hot bull driving by, which is unlikely, the cows have gotten tired of the silly humans waving at them.
"What, like we can wave back? Morons."
Plus, they figure if they ignore humanity we might just all go away... 
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andydp
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 13:13 Post subject:
Now you've got me thinking...
People actually get paid to "coax bats" to run on a treadmill ? Who's sponsoring this ?
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airehead
Oompa Loofah
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Joined: 12 Nov 2002
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Posted: 03/18/05 - 13:21 Post subject:
| andydp wrote: | Now you've got me thinking...
People actually get paid to "coax bats" to run on a treadmill ? Who's sponsoring this ? |
Runner's World...
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