Australian scientists have discovered a ‘very hairy’ type of marsupial, similar to a mouse, the male of which has been known to die after marathon mating sessions.
This new creature is a black-tailed variety of the antechinus, (the yellow-footed antechinus is pictured above).
It can be identified by a very shaggy coat and an orangey-brown coloured rump which ends with a black tail.
According to Andrew Barker, head of research team at Queensland University of Technology, the mating is ‘frenetic’. He said it is not yet known how many of the species exist but he describes them as “quite striking”.
The scientists are applying for an endangered species listing while they conduct further research.
“There’s no courtship, the males will just grab the females and both will mate promiscuously,” Barker told Reuters.
The black-tailed antechinus is believed to inhabit a region across northern New South Wales and Queensland’s Gold Coast.
It is thought that the males breed competitively in order to promote their own genes but the frantic nature of the breeding causes infection, internal bleeding and fatalities.
“Each mating can take 12 to 14 hours and they do this over and over again,” said biologist Dr Diana Fisher from the University of Queensland.
The findings were published in the scientific journal Zootaxa.
