Male marsupial species are dying off due to intense procreation periods according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Our investigations show that rather than altruism, individual sexual selection leads to apparent self-sacrifice in these mammals," Diana Fisher a biologist at University of Queensland in Australia said in a press release. "These species experience extreme sexual behavior, sexual conflict, female and male promiscuity, dramatic death, and synchronized suicide in males. Males compete by sperm competition. Males with larger testes and better endurance succeed. Females benefit by promoting this extreme sperm competition, because the highest-quality males father their young."
According to the study, dying after breeding is a norm in certain species such as insects, plants and fish. The routine is a rarity in mammals such as the marsupial, which researchers find curious. Opponents of the new study uphold that male marsupials die off from fighting, or competing or other resources Nature World News reported.
The species dying are a form of its "biologically programmed sexual suicide."
The mouse-like antechinus and the phascogales or possum species for instance, give off large amounts of energy just by reproducing over a short period of time. As soon as the marsupials are done mating, they immediately collapse.
"They mate for 12 or 14 hours at a time with lots of females, and they use up their muscle and their body tissues and they are using all of their energy to competitively mate, that's what they are doing. It's sexual selection," Fisher told News 24."They just kill themselves mating in this extreme way. They have a nice temperament, they are very inquisitive little animals. They are quite interactive. It's a bit sad. But they don't know it's coming I suppose, it's just something that happens to them."
