Researchers caught an African leopard on camera eating bats from a cave in Uganda. It might be the first confirmation that leopards eat live bats. Credit: Bosco Atukwatse/VSPT Kyambura Lion Project

When researchers in Uganda set up camera traps to monitor African leopards ( Panthera pardus pardus ) and spotted hyenas ( Crocuta crocuta ) in a national park last year, they had no idea that they would record so much more than just those animals. Several of the traps, placed outside a cave known to host Egyptian fruit bats ( Rousettus aegyptiacus ), caught on video a multitude of creatures feasting on the winged mammals. The bats are known carriers of Marburg virus, which can transfer into humans and cause a fatal haemorrhagic fever, so the footage offers real-time insight into how disease can spread.

Scientists know that bats can transmit viruses to humans either directly, or through an intermediate animal , from forensic detective work and other studies.…