African Monkeys Caught Eating Bats For the First Time

Researchers working in Africa are the first to observe monkeys preying on bats. The unusual behavior, which may have something to do with loss of habitat, could explain how dangerous diseases such as Ebola spread among species—and eventually to humans.

African Cercopithecus monkeys are “opportunistic” omnivores, which means they’ll eat just about anything. In addition to eating various fruits and leaves, they sometimes consume lizards, snakes, birds, and mice. And now, as a new paper published in EcoHealth shows, they also like to prey on bats.

This suggests a novel pathway for bat-to-monkey disease transmission. Prior to this study, scientists assumed that monkeys contracted zoonotic diseases—diseases that spread from species to species—by eating fruits contaminated with an infected bat’s saliva or feces. These prolific flying mammals are carriers of several problematic diseases, including Ebola, Marburg, and Henipa.

publish - 24 may 2016

see more at: http://gizmodo.com/african-monkeys-caught-eating-bats-for-the-first-time-1778420172