What’s not to love?

It’s a bad year from a PR perspective to be a bat, but tell that to this intriguing character – Myotis myotis, the greater mouse-eared bat. Although about the body size of a house mouse, M. myotis has been known to live for 37 human years with little or no decline in health and vitality. If humans exhibited the same age-for-weight traits, the oldest of us would stretch healthily to 230 or more years. Bats also harbour a variety of coronaviruses – which to them are harmless. How do they do it? Turn to our story on page 38 to learn more.