Short- and long-term costs of reproduction revealed by telomere dynamics in wild greater horseshoe bats

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 50, December 2025. SignificanceReproduction is costly, but individuals vary in managing these costs. We examine how reproductive timing and effort relates to telomeres, a marker of biological aging in greater horseshoe bats. Females reproducing earlier in their life had …