Intense physical activity in any mammal results in the release of reactive molecules called free radicals. Organisms need to effectively mop up these damaging molecules and the immune system plays a primary role in that process.

Bats, being the world’s only flying mammal, have evolved a remarkably efficient immune system to manage the acute inflammatory damage caused by the high metabolic rate needed to fly. Generally speaking, in mammals fast metabolism and heart rate equals shorter lifespans while slower metabolism and heart rate results in longer lives. Rodents of equivalent size to bats mostly live to ages of two years. Bats on the other hand, can live 30 or 40 years, despite having metabolic rates double that of rats.

It is hypothesized this heightened ability of bats to rapidly suppress inflammation enables the mammal to vigorously fly. And one of the key processes underpinning this rapid anti-inflammatory response is the speedy release of interferon-alpha. Brook notes this enhanced immune response seen in bats would be damaging if replicated within a human body.

“Some bats are able to mount this robust antiviral response, but also balance it with an anti-inflammation response,” says Brook. “Our immune system would generate widespread inflammation if attempting this same antiviral strategy. But bats appear uniquely suited to avoiding the threat of immunopathology.”

Although this doesn’t explain how the viruses seem to frequently jump from animals to humans, the research does offer compelling insights into how, and why, bats seem to be incubating these incredibly virulent viruses.

https://newatlas.com/science/why-deadly-viral-coronavirus-outbreaks-originate-bats/

Different animal but similar idea:

Cancer Rarely Strikes Elephants. New Clues Suggest Why.
The newly tested genes may be an important key to the gentle giants’ surprisingly low rates of cancer.

BY MAYA WEI-HAAS
PUBLISHED AUGUST 14, 2018

Some 30 trillion cells make you, you. Along with your many microbes, this cellular orchestra keeps your body humming along—your heart hammering, your guts gurgling, and your muscles firing. As you grow older, your cells divide so new ones can replace the old. But with this turnover of cells, genetic errors are almost inevitable. And these mishaps often translate to cancer.

Statistically speaking then, bigger animals, which have more cells, should have greater occurrences of cancer. By that reasoning, elephants, with hundreds of times more cells than smaller mammals, should suffer from the disease at much higher rates. But that isn’t the case.

Now, a study in the journal Cell Reports offers new clues as to why—and the key may be a recently revived “zombie” gene.

“From an evolutionary biology perspective, it’s completely fascinating,” says Joshua Schiffman, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Utah who was not involved in the work. “This is a great start,” he says, cautioning that more tests are needed to confirm the find. “I think we’re just at the beginning.”

The Body-Size Conundrum
In 2015, Schiffman and his team published a paper detailing a critical discovery behind this mismatch of organism size and cancer rates—a quandary now known as Peto’s Paradox. They found that trunk-swinging creatures have extra copies of a tumor-suppressing gene called P53. Humans have one copy; elephants have 20

Read more:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/08/news-cancer-elephants-genes-dna-new-research/