Fig. 1
From: Urban fruit bats give birth earlier in the season compared to rural fruit bats
Fruit bat colonies in relation to human population densities. A A map depicting the sampled bat colonies’ locations (urban in brown and rural in green). Circles represent the 5-km radius (dark blue) and 15-km radius (light blue) around the bat colony. Red and brown areas represent urban cities and towns, respectively. Here, we define an urban colony as one with a human population of more than 3000 inhabitants per km2. B Human population density (per km2) for a 5-km and 15-km radius around the colonies. The dotted line shows the cutoff between urban and rural colonies. C Seasonal fluctuations in reproduction. During 2021/2022, one urban colony (Herzliya) and one rural colony (Tinshemet) were sampled approximately once a month for 1 year. Dark green (Tinshemet) and brown (Herzliya) lines and dots represent the percentage of pregnant females out of the total adult females caught in each sampling event. Light green (Tinshemet) and brown (Herzliya) lines represent the percentage of females with pups out of the adult females that were caught in each sampling event. Gray areas represent the dates chosen for sampling in the following years, based on peaks in pregnancies and pup occurrence