Final answer:
To find out how many bats are expected to be in the colony after 7 years, we can use the formula for exponential growth. In this case, the number of bats is doubling every 3 years, since 4 years after the starting point (1 year), there were 1040 bats.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find out how many bats are expected to be in the colony after 7 years, we can use the formula for exponential growth. In this case, the number of bats is doubling every 3 years, since 4 years after the starting point (1 year), there were 1040 bats. So, the growth rate is 2. We can use the formula N = N0 * r^t, where N is the final number of bats, N0 is the initial number of bats, r is the growth rate, and t is the time in years.
Using the values given, we have N = 130 * 2^(7/3). Calculating this expression, we find that the number of bats expected to be in the colony after 7 years is approximately 824. Please note that this is an estimate based on the given data and assumes that the exponential growth rate remains consistent.