"No Time for Bats to Rest Easy"

 "as scientists are discovering, the bat immune system is astonishingly tolerant of most pathogens — a trait that could pose risks to people, but that also offers clues to preventing human diseases of aging, including cancer...“At this stage, the evidence is anecdotal,” said Lin-Fa Wang, a bat virologist at the Duke-NUS Graduate School in Singapore and the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong. “But of all the bat biologists I’ve spoken with, I’ve only heard of one or two cases of bat tumors.”...Preliminary findings indicate that bats’ apparent indifference to the viral throngs they harbor, together with their Methuselah-grade longevity, probably arose from the adaptations needed to grant them the power of flight."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/science/no-time-for-bats-to-rest-easy.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Bats! Also, totally willing to trade the possibility of having cancer for the ability to fly. Totally willing.

so many fun bat facts - like, "bats are the second-most populous mammalian order, after rodents. “One in every five mammals is a bat,” Dr. Reeder said."
(credit to LG)