Results
We captured 433 Mops condylurus and 509 Mops pumilusacross the study period, including 391 individual M. condylurus(with 42 recaptures) and 473 individual M. pumilus (with 36 recaptures). The demographic breakdown of bats is given in Table 1. The male-to-female ratio of the population was 1:1.06 for M. condylurus (192 individual males, vs 204 individual females), and 1:1.84 for M. pumilus (169 individual males, vs 311 individual females).
Of the female bats caught over this period, 66 M. condylurus(including 63 individuals) and 142 M. pumilus (including 140 individuals) were gestating. Significantly more gestating than non-gestating M. condylurus were captured at the beginning of the pulse (weeks 2-5) (Table 2). Through the middle of pulse (weeks 6-9), the number of gestating and non-gestating M. condylurus were comparable. By the end of the pulse (weeks 10-12), significantly moreM. condylurus were not gestating than gestating (Table 2). There was no consistent directional pattern for gestating versus non-gestatingM. pumilus – there were significantly more gestating females in weeks 2, 3, and 11, and significantly more non-gestating females in week 7, while numbers of gestating and non-gestating females did not differ in weeks 4, 5, 9, 10, and 12 (Table 2).
Stage of gestation was not temporally consistent across individual bats (Figure 2). For M. condylurus , females in early-, medium-, and late-stage gestation were detected in weeks 1-2 (4 individuals), between weeks 2-8 (18 individuals), and between weeks 1-10 (58 captures of 55 individuals), respectively. During the month of March, we captured 10M. condylurus at mid-stage gestation, and 20 at late-stage gestation. The detected duration of early gestation was longer forM. pumilus , spanning the first four weeks (8 individuals). Females at mid-stage gestation were detected between weeks 2-12 (91 individuals), and late-stage between weeks 1-12 (68 captures of 67 individuals) (Figure 2). Significantly more middle- and late-stage gestating females were captured from week 2 for both species, compared to early-stage gestating females (Table 2). However, the number of early-, mid-, and late-stage gestating M. condylurus did not differ in weeks 1, 3, 9 and 10, and gestating M. pumilus for weeks 1, 4, 5, and 7 (Table 2).
In total, 124 and 200 lactating M. condylurus and M. pumilus were captured (116 and 191 individuals, respectively), with captures of lactating bats spanning nearly the entire study period for both species (weeks 1-12 and 2-12, respectively) (Figure 2). Of these, 58 (55 individuals) and 111 (109 individuals) were gestating while lactating. All stages of gestation (early, mid, and late) were observed in lactating bats, for both species (Table 3). Females that were simultaneously lactating and gestating were most often caught between weeks 2-8 for M. condylurus (Table 2). For M. pumilus , females that were simultaneously lactating and gestating were most often caught between weeks 2-4, though the first lactating non-pregnant female was captured during week 2 (5th February) (Table 2).
The duration between the first lactating non-pregnant M. condylurus (potentially indicative of the first parturition and start of the birth pulse) and the last gestating M. condylurus(indicative of the last parturition and end of the birth pulse) was ~8.5 weeks in our study (30th January – 31st March) (Table 2). For M. pumilus , gestating females were captured continuously throughout the study period, up to and including the last week of capture, week 12 (14th April). It is likely that the full birth pulse of M. pumilus was not captured during the study period (Table 2).
Non-reproductive adult females were caught over the entire duration of the study, for both species (Table 2). This included 30 captures of 29 individual M. condylurus , and 31 captures of 29 individualM. pumilus . To be conservative in this estimate, non-gravid females with engorged but non lactating nipples (i.e., post-lactating females) were not classified as non-reproductive, even though they may have reproduced in the previous birth pulse only.