Reproduction is driven by seasonal environmental variation in an equatorial mammal, the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo)

Reproduction is an energetically costly activity and so is often timed to occur when conditions are most favourable. However, human-induced changes in long-term, seasonal, and short-term climatic conditions have imposed negative consequences for reproduction across a range of mammals. Whilst the effect of climate change on reproduction in temperate species is well known, its effect on equatorial species is comparatively understudied. We used long-term ecological data (~20 years) to investigate the impact of changes in rainfall and temperature on reproduction in an equatorial mammal, the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo). After controlling for the effects of group-size, we found that more females were pregnant and gave birth following periods of high seasonal rainfall, pregnancies increased at higher seasonal temperatures, and births increased with long-term rainfall. This is likely beneficial as high rainfall is positively associated with pup growth and survival. Females cannot, however, c..., , , # Reproduction is driven by seasonal environmental variation in an equatorial mammal, the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t1g1jwtcw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t1g1jwtcw)

## Description of the data and file structure

Datasets include the imputed average maximum temperature (℃) and average rainfall (mm) per month at the study site which can be converted into a time series and then used to run the decomposition outlined in the methods of the manuscript. Pregnancy, birth and foetus count datasets are also include to allow the replication of the analyses for the number of births, pregnancies and foetuses models in the main manuscript respectively. The pregnancy and birth datasets can also be used to replicate the proportion of pregnancies and births models respectively, these analyses are presented in the supplementary information.

**Max temp imputted dataset contains the following columns**

month: The month specified in the 'Date' column

year: The ye...