VIRAL INFECTION IN BATS 



SULKIN: Well, there are many differences in the same bat 

 species, Eptesicus fuscus. You can do an experiment of this 

 sort. You can collect bats in the fall of the year and use thermo- 

 couples and record body temperature of these bats. Now, if you 

 take a bat just prior to the time he is goint into hibernation, 

 and then place him at about 8° C to 10° C in the laboratory, 

 then record temperatures over a period of time, rectal tempera- 

 ture will march along at a very steady state. If you stimulate 

 this bat with a pair of forceps, the temperature goes up, and 

 goes up very promptly. If you take the same species, Eptesicus 

 fuscus, the big brown bat, and you do the same experiment, 

 but do it in July instead using the same probe and the same 

 amount of insertion into the rectum and so on, everything iden- 

 tically the same, then you can stimulate this bat and nothing 

 happens. We have done this with many bats. So this is one sig- 

 nificant difference between the true hibernating bat and the simu- 

 lated hibernating bat. 



TRAPANI: Don't they wake up during the winter time for 

 feeding ? 



SULKIN: No, they stay in the cage, 



TRAPANI: In their natural habitat? 



SULKIN: In their natural habitat they don't feed; they store 

 food in their brown fat, presumably, and this is enough to keep 

 them going. One can do this with hamsters, too, but it's a trick. 



BERRY: In Texas, doesn't the temperature get high enough 

 to bring them out of the hibernating state? 



SULKIN: Most of the bats in Texas are not true hibernating 

 species, but migratory species. During mid-winter they migrate 

 south to an area where the temperature is optimum. 



BERRY: But bats are in the caves in Texas in the winter 

 time. 



SULKIN: Yes, many Mexican free- tailed bats can be found in 



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