Randy Foo at work in the bat facility he maintains, just before entering the bat housing area. // Credit: Norfaezah Abdullah
“Once, a baby bat got separated from its mother. We couldn’t reunite them. I stayed back to hand-feed it every night at 11, but after a week, it died. That night, I was driving back in my car, tears streaming down my face.”
Emotional tumult and cutting-edge research? Just a regular Tuesday for Randy Foo, Senior Research Assistant and Bat Facility Manager with Duke-NUS’ Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, where a workday veers often from ordinary to unexpected. The only constant about his day, he said, is that it “always begins with coffee”. Part researcher and part custodian of Duke-NUS’ bat facility, Foo’s work sits at the unique intersection of bat biology and the intricacies of animal husbandry.
And bat biology is an area in which interest has boomed in recent years. As the only mammal capable of flight, bats have long captured human imagination. But what really piqued scientists’ interest is their exceptional ability to host highly dangerous viruses, often without showing any symptoms.
“If we can study their immune responses, we can also find what protects them from diseases. From there, we can find therapeutic targets for controlling and treating human infectious diseases,” said Foo.
But it is not just viruses where bats could have something to teach us. Their ability to control their blood sugar could also be instructive: “Our bats are nectarivores and feed mainly on nectar and pollen for energy. With a diet like that, they need to be able to control their blood sugar!”
But first, you need to get hold of a bat.