Bugs on the Menu

[jon1959]

so if you have eaten bugs out in Asia have you eaten bats ?

supposed to be big on the menu out there

No - never. I think it was cicadas I ate (deep fried at the roadside and very crispy).

I don’t remember seeing bats on any food stall (although they eat anything in south China). TBG may be the one to ask as most travelled poster on here.

[Rjk]

No - never. I think it was cicadas I ate (deep fried at the roadside and very crispy).

I don’t remember seeing bats on any food stall (although they eat anything in south China). TBG may be the one to ask as most travelled poster on here.

yeah I've never seen bats for sale over there so I guess it's pretty unusual, I've been to Wuhan a few times too.

I've seen people eating them on Chinese social media but I took that to be performative mostly, as there were also plenty of other horrible things being eaten, including live baby rats.
that said the great famine there will still be in many people's living memory and it was so bad that people literally had to eat whatever they could find in many places, so this does still cast a long shadow.

interestingly in bats they have an incredible ability to repair their DNA throughout their body, they are practically immune to cancers or genotoxic substances, and it means they have a incredibly long lifespan for a mammal of that size around 40 years in some species compared to small rodents who live 2-4 years.
I wonder if this incredible resilience and longevity means that the viruses that live in bat populations have had to evolve to be so much more aggressive and pervasive, which is why they cause so many problems when they cross over to other (weaker) species.

interesting that bats might hold the key to humans being able to live hundreds of years, or they might be brewing the next plague that will decimate us.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

yeah I've never seen bats for sale over there so I guess it's pretty unusual, I've been to Wuhan a few times too.

I've seen people eating them on Chinese social media but I took that to be performative mostly, as there were also plenty of other horrible things being eaten, including live baby rats.
that said the great famine there will still be in many people's living memory and it was so bad that people literally had to eat whatever they could find in many places, so this does still cast a long shadow.

interestingly in bats they have an incredible ability to repair their DNA throughout their body, they are practically immune to cancers or genotoxic substances, and it means they have a incredibly long lifespan for a mammal of that size around 40 years in some species compared to small rodents who live 2-4 years.
I wonder if this incredible resilience and longevity means that the viruses that live in bat populations have had to evolve to be so much more aggressive and pervasive, which is why they cause so many problems when they cross over to other (weaker) species.

interesting that bats might hold the key to humans being able to live hundreds of years, or they might be brewing the next plague that will decimate us.

Interesting post, old fruit.

[Wales-Bales]

interestingly in bats they have an incredible ability to repair their DNA throughout their body, they are practically immune to cancers or genotoxic substances, and it means they have a incredibly long lifespan for a mammal of that size around 40 years in some species compared to small rodents who live 2-4 years.
I wonder if this incredible resilience and longevity means that the viruses that live in bat populations have had to evolve to be so much more aggressive and pervasive, which is why they cause so many problems when they cross over to other (weaker) species.

When it comes to trusting the science, "I Wonder" are the last two words I want to hear!

[Canton Kev]

When it comes to trusting the science, "I Wonder" are the last two words I want to hear!

You trust the science?

[Wales-Bales]

You trust the science?

Peer reviewed science is great, but when they start selecting attributes for the reviewers (e.g. obedience), then it's not so great.

[Rjk]

When it comes to trusting the science, "I Wonder" are the last two words I want to hear!

that's why I wrote it to indicate which part of the sentence was factual and which was speculation by me.
you should try it some time.

[jon1959]

yeah I've never seen bats for sale over there so I guess it's pretty unusual, I've been to Wuhan a few times too.

I've seen people eating them on Chinese social media but I took that to be performative mostly, as there were also plenty of other horrible things being eaten, including live baby rats.
that said the great famine there will still be in many people's living memory and it was so bad that people literally had to eat whatever they could find in many places, so this does still cast a long shadow.

interestingly in bats they have an incredible ability to repair their DNA throughout their body, they are practically immune to cancers or genotoxic substances, and it means they have a incredibly long lifespan for a mammal of that size around 40 years in some species compared to small rodents who live 2-4 years.
I wonder if this incredible resilience and longevity means that the viruses that live in bat populations have had to evolve to be so much more aggressive and pervasive, which is why they cause so many problems when they cross over to other (weaker) species.

interesting that bats might hold the key to humans being able to live hundreds of years, or they might be brewing the next plague that will decimate us.

Very interesting. Food for thought!

[Taunton Blue Genie]

No - never. I think it was cicadas I ate (deep fried at the roadside and very crispy).

I don’t remember seeing bats on any food stall (although they eat anything in south China). TBG may be the one to ask as most travelled poster on here.

It is said that the Chinese eat anything that has legs. Apart from tables, that is.

For my part, I was given the guest of honour treatment in being served the duck's feet when eating out in China with some contacts I have over there. It's not an honour I particularly appreciated.

[Rjk]

It is said that the Chinese eat anything that has legs. Apart from tables, that is.

For my part, I was given the guest of honour treatment in being served the duck's feet when eating out in China with some contacts I have over there. It's not an honour I particularly appreciated.

some parts of China more-so than others.

not only the types of animal, but also the parts of the animal, duck tongues, fish eyes, ligaments, bone.

the west and probably especially the British are like babies gastronomically, eating our bland water filled chicken breast and at a push some farmed salmon