The marsupial where every male dies after one mating season
For this animal, one mating season is a death sentence, and not a single male survives it.
Which one is REALLY true about the Antechinus?
The short version
The antechinus is a small Australian marsupial whose males enter a two-week mating frenzy, stopping sleep and food. Stress hormones flood their bodies, their immune systems collapse, their fur falls out and they bleed internally. Every male dies before a second year; the females live on and raise the young alone.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Antechinus is a small mouse-like marsupial from the forests of Australia, and is not a rodent at all.
- ✓The Antechinus crams its whole mating season into a frenzy lasting about two weeks, with almost no sleeping and no eating.
- ✓The Antechinus floods its own body with stress hormones during that frenzy until its immune system collapses completely.
- ✓The Antechinus starts losing its fur and bleeding internally before the season is even over.
- ✓The Antechinus loses every single male by the end of the season, leaving the females to raise the young alone.
You could line up about 11 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
For this little animal, mating season is a death sentence, and every male walks into it anyway. Meet the antechinus, a small mouse-like marsupial from the forests of Australia. Once a year the males enter a frenzy that lasts around two weeks, during which they mate almost continuously and stop both sleeping and eating. The stress floods their bodies with hormones, and their immune systems collapse completely. Their fur falls out, they bleed internally, and by the end of the season every single male is dead. Not one survives to see a second year. The females live on and raise the young alone. Biologists call it suicidal reproduction, and it is a real strategy, because one enormous burst of effort beats a lifetime of small ones. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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“The Antechinus is a small mouse-like marsupial from the forests of Australia, and is not a rodent at all.”
“The Antechinus shoots its prey out of the air with a high-speed jet of water, like a living water gun.”
“The Antechinus crams its whole mating season into a frenzy lasting about two weeks, with almost no sleeping and no eating.”