"This sickness-induced social distancing does not require cooperation from others and is probably common across species."

The experiment

A team of researchers captured 31 wild adult female vampire bats from inside a hollow tree in Belize and injected half of them with an immune-challenging substance to simulate sickness, while the other half received a placebo.

Researchers then glued sensors to the "sick" bats to track their movements before being released back into the tree for observation.

The results

Throughout the six-hour observation period, the sick bats spent less time socially connected to the healthy bats.

That's just what health experts have been suggesting we humans do all along: social distancing.

The sick bats had an average of four fewer associations than the healthy bats and spent 25 fewer minutes socializing.