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Nature brutal: Antechinus mimetes in cannibalism

Photo: Elliot Bowerman

The act of reproduction does not always end well for all animals involved.

This is particularly true for specimens of the brown broad-footed marsupial mouse, which occurs in eastern Australia.

The males of the species pay for their sexual activities with their lives: they die after several hours of sexual intercourse.

But that's not all, researchers from the Queensland University of Technology report in a study.

They observed cannibalistic behavior among the animals.

The results were published in the journal “Australian Mammalogy”.

The mating season of the brown broad-footed marsupial mouse (Antechinus mimetes) lasts about one to three weeks, during which time males and females come together for up to 14 hours at a time.

This is particularly stressful for the males: they fight to mate with as many females as possible.

"The males drop dead"

The rising testosterone floods the body uncontrollably with the stress hormone cortisol, said lead author Andrew Baker, according to a statement.

So much cortisol is released that pathological levels are reached.

"The males drop dead."

For the males and pregnant or lactating females who are still alive, this is an opportunity to "generate cheap energy through cannibalism," says Baker.

Although cannibalistic behavior is known in some dasyurids - the group of predators that also includes the broad-footed marsupial mice - it is rarely observed in the wild.

The researchers evaluated, among other things, recordings from the New England National Park in the Australian state of New South Wales of an animal eating a dead member of its own species.

The team also found that the animals also eat other species, such as Stuart broad-footed quolls.

"In places where two Antechinus species live in the same area, the two slightly separated mating seasons offer the opportunity to cannibalize both your own and the other species," says Baker.

Pregnant and lactating females of earlier mating species could obtain energy-rich food by eating the dying males of later mating species, the expert said.

"In later-mating species, both sexes may take the opportunity to cannibalize dead males from earlier-mating species in order to gain weight and condition before their own mating and gestation period begins."

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