Dim Those Lights and Help Animals

Are you afraid of the dark? As humans, we're more or less biologically predisposed to be diurnal animals. We don't see as well in low light as a lot of our fellow mammals, and society has cultured us over the ages to regard night time as a place where scary, dangerous things loom.

So, being smart, resourceful human beings with opposable thumbs and lots of gray matter, we devised solutions to make darkness less scary. First it was fire, then oil lamps, and now electricity. And, in the past hundred years or so, we've converted a lot of our human habitat to a place where there's not a lot of real darkness. The problem is, well, that was pretty self-centered of us.

What we're talking about here is light pollution, and it's also what a bunch of scientists and researchers were talking about in Edmonton, Alberta last week at the 24th annual International Congress for Conservation Biology.

Light pollution is a major problem for a lot of species, for example:

• Sea turtles are used to navigating away from the relatively darker inland parts of beaches and towards moonlight and starlight reflected off water. If there's a well-lit area nearby, turtles can become disoriented, heading inland when they should be going back to the water.
• Migratory birds can often be thrown off course by well-lit cities near their migration path. At best, they lose their way; at worst, they strike tall buildings.
• Nocturnal foragers, like bats and mice, need darkness to hide from predators.

There are other examples, but this is clearly an under-addressed problem in wildlife management.

So, what can we do to make things a little easier for wildlife at night? Start by acting hyperlocally — check your outside lights and don't leave them on all night, just when you need them. You can also help out by using lower-wattage bulbs, and shading outdoor lights so they point where they're most useful to you, and least harmful to your neighborhood wildlife.

If things are good on the home front, and you're feeling ambitious and activistic, take a look at what Chicago is doing and see if you can make something similar happen where you live. (If there's a need, of course.) The city of Chicago, in partnership with the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago and Audobon, has what it calls "Lights Out Chicago," which encourages owners and managers of skyscrapers to turn off or dim unnecessary lights during migration season. The program includes over 30 high-rise buildings and is estimated to save over 10,000 birds each year.

I'm not here to tell you that light is bad, but overlighting, especially in wildlife-sensitive areas, is avoidable with a little compassion and a little common sense. Right now, we're pitting Thomas Edison against a few million years of evolutionary biology and instinctive behavior, and everybody's a loser.

So go turn off a light.

Photo credit: Matt McGee