<p>Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: Life Sciences 7B. Comprising 20 percent of all mammals and inhabiting all but one continent, bats are the only mammals capable of powered flight. Bats can also echolocate, hibernate, live longer than humans, and harbor viruses but not get sick. This allows bats to be reservoirs for many viruses that can cause zoonotic diseases in humans, including Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Exploration of evolution, anatomy, physiology, immunology, longevity, and conservation of bats. Focus on how scientists use bats as model system to address key questions in ecology, evolution, and human health. Letter grading.</p>

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

College of Letters and Science

Container 1

EE BIOL 169 - Biology of Bats: The True Superheroes

Biology of Bats: The True Superheroes

Articulate scientific ideas in written and oral format through the medium of poster presentations.

Propose interventional strategies to mitigate the threat of bat to human viral transmission in a given region, based on the history of land use, bat and human population trends, and the biology of the bat species in the region.

Explain how the evolution of powered flight has been proposed to have completely transformed the anatomy, physiology, viral tolerance, longevity, and evolutionary history of bats.

Detail the many unique aspects of bat biology whose study has the potential to inform and improve human health.

Describe the evolutionary history, modern taxonomic, anatomical, and physiological diversity, and basic biology of bats.

Define the major threats to bat populations worldwide and the primary conservation approaches that are being used to try to mitigate their negative impact.

Justify the vital ecosystem services that bats provide and the many negative impacts that losing bats would have on our world.

Advocate for bats and the futures of the many bat species.

Specify the unique anatomical, functional, and physiological processes that make bats like "superheroes," as stated in the course title.

General Catalog

Biology of Bats: The True Superheroes

EE BIOL 169

4 units