Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English.
I’m Neil.
And I’m Sam.
For centuries the relationship between
humans and bats has been complex.
In some cultures bats are depicted as vampires,
associated with Halloween, witches and dark,
scary places.
In others they are considered
messengers of the gods.
Bats play an important part in stories and myths
from around the world.
And a large illuminated
‘bat signal’ shining in the night sky can mean only one thing –
a call for help to the superhero, Batman!
So do we love or hate these furry flying animals?
And with some newspaper headlines identifying bats
as the possible source of Covid-19,
should we think of them as friend or enemy?
We’ll be answering all these questions soon, but first,
Neil, time for another interesting bat fact.
Did you know that bats account for
1 in 5 of all mammal species?
There’s a huge variety of them, from tiny fruit-eating bats
that fit into the palm of your hand to giant carnivores,
or meat-eaters.
That’s right.
In fact it’s the variety of bat types that
might explain our complex feelings towards them.
So, Sam, my quiz question is this: roughly how
many different species of bat are there worldwide?
Is it:
a) one and a half thousand?
b) two and a half thousand? or,
c) three and a half thousand?
Hmmm, I’ll say b) two and a half thousand.
OK, Sam, we’ll come back to that later in the programme.
Maybe not everyone likes them but bats do have some friends.
Farmers love them for pollinating their plants…
…and medical scientists study them hoping to
discover the secrets of their anti-ageing and long life.
Dr Winifred Frick is the chief scientist at
Bat Conservation International, a group of
environmentalists working to protect bats.
Here she is telling BBC World Service programme,
The Documentary, about another useful service
provided by bats in the United States:
Most bats are insectivorous and they’re really
important consumers of different kinds of insect pests
and here in the United States it’s been estimated that
bats provide billions of dollars every year to the US
agricultural industry through their voracious
consumption of agricultural pest insects.
Most bats eat only insects – they’re insectivores.
That’s good news for farmers because they eat many pests -
insects or small animals that are harmful or damage crops.
Even better, bats’ appetite for these annoying insects is voracious –
very strong and eager.
So far, so good in the friendship between humans and bats.
But then along came the coronavirus pandemic and with it,
newspaper reports that bats might be to blame.
Before we get into this we need to explain some terms.
The Covid which people around the world have
been suffering from is the ‘outbreak virus’.
But if you go backwards there’s an intermediary
known as the ‘progenitor virus’ between this and
the ‘ancestral virus’, which is decades or centuries older.
Ninety-nine percent of scientists would agree
that the ‘ancestral virus’ of Covid-19 came from bats.
But it’s the go-between ‘progenitor virus’
that everyone is searching for now.
One of the scientists leading this search is Linfa Wang,
a professor at Duke Medical School who is known
as the ‘Batman of Singapore’.
Here he is explaining his
work to BBC World Service’s, The Documentary:
Of course the holy grail right now for Covid-19
is to discover where is that progenitor virus and
also in which kind of animals or humans, right?
And usually the progenitor virus has to be 99.9%
identical to the outbreak virus and so our study
was set up to do that.
If you can catch that virus
and you demonstrate the genomic sequence is
99.9% [identical] then that’s brilliant.
Professor Wang thinks that finding the source of
Covid-19’s ‘progenitor virus’ would be like finding
the holy grail.
This expression - the holy grail -
is associated with the cup believed to have been
used by Jesus Christ at his last meal.
It means
something extremely difficult to find or get.
If you can discover the ‘progenitor virus’ then,
in the words of Professor Wang – that’s brilliant! –
an exclamation meaning ‘that’s very good!’ or ‘amazing!’
So although bats are sometimes, wrongly,
blamed for causing Covid, they are good friends to farmers,
environmentalists and scientists – as well as vampires!
So anyway, what was the answer to your quiz question, Neil.
Ah yes, I asked Sam how many different species
of bat are there around the world.
What did you say?
I said there were, b) two and a half thousand
different species of bats.
Was I right?
You were close, Sam, but the correct answer was…
a) there are one and a half thousand different
species of bats around the world.
Let’s recap the vocabulary from this programme
about the relationship between humans and bats,
starting with carnivores which are animals that eat meat…
Insectivores, meanwhile, are animals,
like most bats, that eat only insects.
A pest is an insect or small animal
that is harmful or damages crops.
Bats eat pests voraciously, or very eagerly.
The holy grail refers to something that’s
extremely difficult to find or get.
And finally, you can use the phrase, that’s brilliant!
to say, ‘that’s great!’ or ‘amazing!’
Once again our six minutes are up.
See you again soon for more topical chats
and trending vocabulary here at 6 Minute English.
And don’t forget you can download our app
to find programmes on many more topics,
from African animals to zodiac signs and zombies,
all here on the BBC Learning English website.
Bye for now!
Bye bye!