But on the inside it had large testis, so these are testis, and this is an oviduct. HAYES: This is an animal that looked like a female on the outside. But Hayes’ research showed that atrazine exposure made these frogs 7 times more prone to homosexual behavior and10 percent of the exposed frogs actually became feminized.ĪHERN: To explain what he meant by “feminized” Hayes brought me back to his office and pulled up a picture on his laptop of a frog that had been exposed to the herbicide. HAYES: So what you can see is that there’s a seven-fold difference in the atrazine treated animals.ĪHEARN: Homosexual behavior has been recorded in over 450 different species of animals – from bison to beetles. He exposed some of his frogs to the same level of atrazine that the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for drinking water, and he kept the rest of the frogs atrazine-free. Once Hayes heard about this he started collecting data. This for example is one that has lots of gay males, homosexual pairs in it because it’s a treated tank.ĪHEARN: One morning when one of Hayes’ PhD students came in to feed the specimens at 7 AM she noticed some male-on-male copulation going on in a tank that had been treated with atrazine – the second most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. HAYES: So in this tank there are 40 brothers that are not exposed to atrazine and in this tank there are 40 brothers who were exposed to atrazine and so we can compare these two tubs and look at the number of homosexual pairs. Below the surface, fat greenish-yellow frogs swim around– their bulging eyes looking up at us through the water. HAYES: So these are the South African Claw frog.ĪHEARN: Tyrone Hayes peers into a large gray fiberglass tank like a little boy looking for critters in a tide pool. And they may be affecting our reproductive health – indeed, even our sexual preferences. They eventually make their way from our farms, households or industry into the environment – and into our bodies.
We use synthetic chemicals for everything from plastics to pesticides. From the carpets in our living rooms to the liners of our canned goods we’re exposed to manmade chemicals every day. CURWOOD: It’s Living on Earth, I’m Steve Curwood.
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