Effect of photoperiod on the annual cycle of testis growth in a tropical mammal, the little red flying fox, Pteropus scapulatus.

Abstract

Little red flying foxes (Pteropus scapulatus) are seasonal breeders: they mate in late spring/early summer, and young are born the following autumn. In captivity, males housed outdoors in a normal breeding colony in natural daylight showed a single cycle of testis growth and regression each year. During reproductive quiescence, testicular volume was approximately 2 cm3; recrudescence began soon after the winter solstice; testicular volume was maximum at approximately 6.5 cm3 at the spring equinox; and regression was complete by the end of summer. To test whether photoperiod entrains or synchronizes the cycle, groups of males were housed indoors, without females, at constant temperature, and artificial lighting was timed to either mimic naturally changing daylength or provide alternating 3-month periods of short (11 h light:13 h dark) or long (16 h light:8 h dark) days (two groups, three months out of phase with each other). During 18 months, the applied photoperiod protocol had no effect on the frequency of testicular cycles (which remained at one per year), the time course of recrudescence and regression (as described above for normal outdoor control males), or the completeness of growth and regression stages. These results suggest that male P. scapulatus are not reproductively photoresponsive.