Being horny has its limits

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 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.
The fun part of this little ditty was, for me, the questioning of the long-held conclusion (by masculine scientists) that this poor little guy was sacrificing himself for the survival of the species, literally dying so that others might live. Dr. Fisher submits contrary evidence that the little bugger is just horny. It's his diet!
You can read the whole paper here.


Excerpted from an academic paper by Diana O. Fisher, Christopher R. Dickman, Menna E. Jones and Simon P Blomberg. edited by James H. Brown, University of New Mexico and approved August 29, 2013.  I added my two cents at the end. (Italics)