The study, published Wednesday, suggests males are depriving themselves of rest in their relentless pursuit
In the hope of shedding light on this violentdue to sexual mortality, a team of researchers strapped tiny backpacks with tracking devices to seven male and six female quolls (another name for marsupial martens) on Groot Eylandt, off the coast of Australia's Northern Territory.
Data collected over 42 days, including the breeding season, was fed into a machine learning algorithm that analyzed various quoll behavior patterns.
Males were found to be much more activefemales that live up to four breeding seasons. While females rested or lay down nearly 24% of the time, males were only 7% resting, according to a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The study's lead author, Joshua Hasek of the University of the Sunshine Coast, said "the males didn't appear to be getting as much sleep as they should have."
Hasek says the annual male extinction could threaten the survival of the northern quoll, which has been hit hard by the introduction of non-native cane toads, cats and foxes into Australia.
But carnivorous marsupials use thisextreme breeding strategy, also known as suicidal breeding, "for thousands of years - there must be some benefit in this," the scientist said. On the island of Groot Eylandt, where there are no cane toads and few cats, northern quolls "not just survive, they live very well," he said.
Adrian Bradley of the University of Queensland, whodid not take part in the study, is confident that the "marital frenzy" of small marsupials "is an irresistible reaction to the release of perfume-like pheromones from the cloacal glands of females."
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