Light pollution upsets breeding lemurs

Light pollution disrupts the natural reproductive cycle of lemurs a new study has found.

Male lemurs are sexually inactive over the winter, while in summer when there is sunlight for more than 12 hours each day, they become sexually active.

For five weeks throughout winter, French researchers placed sexually inactive male lemurs inside a chamber where the level of light was controlled by fluorescent lamps to equal that of the full moon. The second group was exposed only to yellow LED lights to mimic streetlights and, after two weeks, displayed higher levels of testosterone and developed considerably larger testes.

Further studies will explore whether chronic exposure to light pollution could impact the human reproductive function as well.