There's an animal that fucks itself to death

It's actually considered a mass mortality event.

It’s a common fact that female spiders engage in sexual cannibalism, where she eats her male mate before or after mating.

While there’s one animal that doesn’t go to the extreme of sexual cannibalism, the males still experience a mass mortality rate post mating.

These animals are known as antechinus.

These tiny guys known as antechinus, are full of wonderful surprises. Photo by patrickkavanagh on Flickr

Antechinus are a small Australian marsupial. While they look like mice, they’re actually not mice. In fact, they belong to a family of dasyurid that also include quolls, the Tasmanian devil and the extinct thylacine.

But what makes the antechinus especially unique is their breeding season.

The females are monoestrous, meaning that they only have one oestrous cycle per year. They’re also all oestrous at the same time of the year. Which means that mating can occur over a short, two to three-week period.

Aka, that’s only a few weeks to go gangbusters, if you know what I mean.

Antechinus only have a few weeks per year to breed. Photo by patrickkavanagh on Flickr

And they do go gangbusters. In some antechinus species, mating can last up to 12 hours. Some of the males sure do have some stamina.

So, it’s no surprise that the males experience high levels of stress and neglect their health. Which eventually results in the death of every single male.

You can blame the stress hormone cortisol for this.

During the breeding period, the males’ cortisol spikes up. Due to the surge in testosterone, their biological mechanisms fail to keep their cortisol levels at bay. The high levels of cortisol results in systematic organ failure and eventually death of pretty much every single male.

But don’t worry, antechinus tend to have an average of eight to ten offspring, with their offspring reaching reproductive maturity at around nine to ten months. So, by the time the next mating season comes around, there’ll be a new generation of male antechinus ready to sacrifice their lives to do the deed.

On top of fucking like crazy, antechinus also produce an average of eight to ten offspring, which look like these tiny jellybeans. Photo by author

If I’m being truthfully honest, I’m quite impressed by these tiny guys. They’re pretty vigorous animals.