Social intimacy helps too, and many kinds of bat seem to love crowding, at least when they hibernate or roost. Mexican free-tailed bats in Carlsbad Caverns, for instance, snuggle together at about three hundred individuals per square foot. Not even lab mice in an overloaded cage would tolerate that. If a virus can be passed by direct contact, bodily fluids, or tiny droplets sprayed through the air, crowding improves its chances. Under conditions like those in Carlsbad, Calisher’s group noted, even rabies has been known to achieve airborne transmission.
Oh my god WHAT I don’t want to know this 😖
