Male marsupials pass away after extreme intercourse according to new findings from the Queensland University of Technology.
Scientists captured the species in the Springbrook National Park in Australia using traps covered in peanut butter, and oats Live Science reported Monday. It has been named the black-tailed antechinus.
"When we caught the first black-tailed antechinus in a trap, we knew we were onto something pretty special," Andrew Baker a mammalogist at the school said in a statement Live Science reported.
Scientists initially came across the antechinus in May, and noticed it did not look like its dusky antechinus counterpart, which resides in the area so they presumed it was a marsupial they had never seen before Live Science reported.
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.
According to a study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 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.
"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," Diane Fisher, a biologist at the University of Queensland 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" Fisher told News 24.
