Australia has some wild wildlife, that isn’t news. Just look at the platypus – but don’t touch, or the egg-laying otter with a duck’s bill might sting you with its venomous heel spine.
Utterly fabulous, but mad.
Another weirdo you may not have heard of is the antechinus, a small mouse-like marsupial found in the nation’s forests.
They may look like your everyday small furry creature, but these critters are famous for their three-week long breeding season in which males basically have so much sex they die.
Scientifically known as semelparity, or ‘suicidal reproduction’, the sex sessions can last for up to 14 hours at a time. After weeks of furious mating, surging testosterone levels cause another hormone, cortisol, to flood the body. This leads to multiple organ failure and a very unpleasant death.
Now however, scientists have discovered an even more grim ending to this sex marathon.
Cannibalism.
Yes, researchers in Queensland have spotted an antechinus that survived the season eating a less fortunate rival.
Warning: Graphic image below
‘During the breeding season, male and females mate promiscuously in frenzied bouts lasting as long as 14 hours,’ said Associate Professor Andrew Baker, from Queensland University of Technology.
‘Certain stress-induced death follows for all males as surging testosterone causes cortisol to flood uncontrolled through the body, reaching pathological levels.
‘The males drop dead, which provides an opportunity for cheap energy gain via cannibalism for still-living males and pregnant or lactating female antechinuses.
‘While cannibalistic behaviour has been reported in some dasyurids [the family which includes antechinuses and Tasmanian devils], it is very rare to observe in the wild.’
The chance finding was made by Sunshine Coast council employee Elliot Bowerman, who was on a two-night trip to Lookout Point in the New England National Park.
While stopping on the trail to inspect some plants he heard a rustling. Following the sound, he found the antechinus dragging the body of another, before stopping to devour it.
Both were identified as mainland dusky antechinuses by the team.
‘In places such as Point Lookout where two antechinus species [the dusky and the brown antechinus] are living in the same area, the two slightly separated breeding periods provide the opportunity to cannibalise both their own and the other species,’ said Professor Baker.
‘Each species may benefit from eating dead males of the other.
‘For the earlier-breeding antechinus species, it may mean that pregnant and lactating females can get high-energy food by cannibalising the males of the later-breeding species as they die off.
‘For the later-breeding species, both sexes may take the opportunity to cannibalise dead males of the earlier-breeding species, to help stack on weight and condition before their own breeding period commences.’
Well. That all sounds pretty brutal, but in the non-human world it really is just all about surviving and reproducing – although most male antechinuses don’t seem to have quite nailed both.
Seems like this one might have though. For now.
‘In the present study, the sex of the animal eating the dead antechinus is uncertain but it is most likely a male,’ said Professor Baker. ‘Although males are believed to eat less than females during breeding, both sexes are known to eat at that time.
‘The antechinus seen feeding on its dead comrade appeared vigorous and large-bodied, but it had damage to its right eye and hair loss on its arms and shoulders, which is associated with stress-induced decline in males.
‘He was perhaps destined soon to become somebody else’s meal.’
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