Why A Little Mammal Has So Much Sex That It Disintegrates

National Geographic ^ | 10/8/13 | Ed Yong

[Slings and Arrows]

It’s August in Australia, and a small, mouse-like creature called an antechinus is busy killing himself through sex. He was a virgin until now, but for two to three weeks, this little lothario goes at it non-stop. He mates with as many females as he can, in violent, frenetic encounters that can each last up to 14 hours. He does little else.

A month ago, he irreversibly stopped making sperm, so he’s got all that he will ever have. This burst of speed-mating is his one chance to pass his genes on to the next generation, and he will die trying. He exhausts himself so thoroughly that his body starts to fall apart. His blood courses with testosterone and stress hormones. His fur falls off. He bleeds internally. His immune system fails to fight off incoming infections, and he becomes riddled with gangrene.

He’s a complete mess, but he’s still after sex. “By the end of the mating season, physically disintegrating males may run around frantically searching for last mating opportunities,” says Diana Fisher from the University of Queensland. “By that time, females are, not surprisingly, avoiding them.”

Soon, it’s all over. A few weeks shy of his first birthday, he is dead, along with every other male antechinus in the area.

[boycott]

In the US those rodents are the majority of welfare recipients.

---

So true.

[Slings and Arrows]

*rimshot*

I asked.

[Paradox]

I love it, check out the list of references:

Reference: Fisher, Dickman, Jones & Blomberg. 2013. Sperm competition drives the evolution of suicidal reproduction in mammals. PNAS

[Slings and Arrows]

Hawt!

[a fool in paradise]

He exhausts himself so thoroughly that his body starts to fall apart. His blood courses with testosterone and stress hormones. His fur falls off. He bleeds internally. His immune system fails to fight off incoming infections, and he becomes riddled with gangrene.

I guess this is another one of those articles that defends the homosexual lifestyle as "natural" (if unhealthy).

[dfwgator]

You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals ....

[GeronL]

Poor Laz

we should rename the species for Laz A Mataz

[GeronL]

forgot to ping

Poor Laz

we should rename the species for Laz A Mataz

[Pan_Yan]

He mates with as many females as he can, in violent, frenetic encounters that can each last up to 14 hours. He does little else. ... He exhausts himself so thoroughly that his body starts to fall apart. His blood courses with testosterone and stress hormones. His fur falls off. He bleeds internally. His immune system fails to fight off incoming infections, and he becomes riddled with gangrene.

I got better.

[TheOldLady]

This is why I picked TheOldLady. I can’t outage it.

[Slings and Arrows]

Well, that’s one item off your bucket list.

[Hot Tabasco]

He exhausts himself so thoroughly that his body starts to fall apart. His blood courses with testosterone and stress hormones.

Damn, my doctor told me it was just old age setting in........

[Titan Magroyne]

That’s pretty awesome. I just finished reading the book for the first time.

Victirian horror - a little bit slow, but great concept.