New Species of Highly Sexed Carnivorous Marsupials Discovered in Australia

Highly sexed carnivorous marsupials inhabiting a small region of Australia mate so vigorously that males die of it.

A team of mammalogists from the Queensland University of Technology has discovered a pink-nosed marsupial in Australia's Spingbrook National Park. The newly discovered marsupial, called the black-tailed antechinus, is distinct from the other species of the genus because of its long black tail, five-toed fur and a yellow orange rump and fur around its eyes, LiveScience reports.  Also they are highly promiscuous.

The same team has already identified other species belonging to the antechinus group.  It was mammalogist Andrew Baker who recognized two different species in the same genus. The black-tailed antechinus was first discovered in May 2013. But this species failed to match the characteristics of its relative, the dusky antechinus that resides in the same region. This prompted the team to take a closer look at the marsupial.

"When we caught the first black-tailed antechinus in a trap, we knew we were onto something pretty special," Baker said to LiveScience.

To further investigate the specimen inhabiting small areas of high altitude and high rainfall in south-east Queensland and north east New South Wales, the team successfully enticed the five toed marsupial by camouflaging 300 traps with oats and butter.

The team was surprised to see that the marsupials, both males and females, in this genus are promiscuous. During the mating frenzy, both males and females mate for hours. This competitive effort to increase their chances of siring several offsprings comes to a tragic end as the males spend extra energy on mating due to which there is a dramatic increase in their stress hormone causing them to die as their immune system collapses.

They spend so much energy during the first breeding season that they miss on the chance to breed again.  The team claims that the marsupial couples mate for nearly 14 hours at a time.

While the sex addicted males lose their lives, the females accumulate the sperms all breeding season and then ovulate causing the eggs to be fertilized by multiple males at the same time. Very few females survive to breed several times but most of them die after having their first litter, reports  LiveScience.

The practise of suicidal reproduction has been earlier identified in several animal species including a few insects. The Pacific Salmon, Brazilian Slender Opossum and few arachnids indulge in this habit .

The team plans to apply for the endangered species listing for this group. The findings have been documented in the journal, Zootaxa.