ArticleBMC biology2021
Urban bat pups take after their mothers and are bolder and faster learners than rural pups.
Article in BMC biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phenotypic Flexibility in the City: A Meta-Analysis on Variation.Ecology letters · 2026Pooled it
- Chiroptera Personality-A Guide for Assessing Personality Variation in Bats: Ecological, Methodological and Statistical Considerations.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Urbanisation Drives Microevolution in the Egyptian Fruit Bat (Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Article
- Spur-winged lapwings show spatial behavioural types with different mobility and exploration between urban and rural individuals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Spatial memory obviates following behaviour in an information centre of wild fruit bats.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Fruit bats adjust their decision-making process according to environmental dynamics.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Context-specific variation and repeatability in behavioral traits of bent-wing bats.Zoological letters · 2023Article
- By a whisker: the sensory role of vibrissae in hovering flight in nectarivorous bats.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Approaching humans for food is a behavior transmitted from mothers to offspring in a large herbivore.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- Maternal diet exerts sex-specific effects on offspring' personalities in predatory mites.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUrbanization is rapidly changing our planet and animals that live in urban environments must quickly adjust their behavior. One of the most prevalent behavioral characteristics of urban dwelling animals is an increased level of risk-taking. Here, we aimed to reveal how urban fruitbats become risk-takers, and how they differ behaviorally from rural bats, studying both genetic and non-genetic factors that might play a role in the process. We assessed the personality of newborn pups from both rural and urban colonies before they acquired experience outdoors, examining risk-taking, exploration, and learning rates.
resultsUrban pups exhibited significantly higher risk-taking levels, they were faster learners, but less exploratory than their rural counterparts. A cross-fostering experiment revealed that pups were more similar to their adoptive mothers, thus suggesting a non-genetic mechanism and pointing towards a maternal effect. We moreover found that lactating urban mothers have higher cortisol levels in their milk, which could potentially explain the transmission of some personality traits from mother to pup.
conclusionsYoung bats seem to acquire environment suitable traits via post-birth non-genetic maternal effects. We offer a potential mechanism for how urban pups can acquire urban-suitable behavioral traits through hormonal transfer from their mothers.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.