Dr Simon Ripperger of Ohio State University, the study’s lead author, said in a statement: “The sensors gave us an amazing new window into how the social behaviour of these bats changed from hour to hour and even minute to minute during the course of the day and night, even while they are hidden in the darkness of a hollow tree.
“We’ve gone from collecting data every day to every few seconds.”
Amazing, such behaviour is not even particularly very rare among other animals.
According to a Scientific American article from earlier in the year, lobsters, monkeys, fish, insects and birds are also known to socially distance when they detect illness in their peers.
This is likely because animals understand how associating with infectious animals can result in being hit with wave after wave of disease.