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Why A Little Mammal Has So Much Sex That It Disintegrates
National Geographic ^ | 10/8/13 | Ed Yong

Posted on 10/08/2013 10:32:52 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows

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 each 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at phenomena.nationalgeographic.com ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: napl; sex
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When I was a teenage boy, that's how I would've wanted to go.
1 posted on 10/08/2013 10:32:52 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
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To: Slings and Arrows; MeekOneGOP; Conspiracy Guy; DocRock; King Prout; Darksheare; OSHA; ...
Ladies and Gentlemen, the mascot for Planned Parenthood.


2 posted on 10/08/2013 10:33:58 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

The Anthony Weiner of the natural world.


3 posted on 10/08/2013 10:35:10 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Vince Ferrer

At least Carlos Danger only disintegrated politically.


4 posted on 10/08/2013 10:39:23 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Mother Nature is a bitch.


5 posted on 10/08/2013 10:39:59 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: vbmoneyspender

The male praying mantis agrees.


6 posted on 10/08/2013 10:41:47 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows
Looks like a species of possum (i.e. versus opossum, which refers to the species in the Americas; the two words were once one).


7 posted on 10/08/2013 10:43:17 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Slings and Arrows

The male antechinus is still luckier than male mantids and male spiders . . . at least his first girlfriend doesn’t kill and eat him.


8 posted on 10/08/2013 10:44:38 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Slings and Arrows

Sounds like schoolies (end of school year summer break week) in Surfers Paradise!


9 posted on 10/08/2013 10:47:50 PM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

at least they aren’t gay


10 posted on 10/08/2013 10:50:00 PM PDT by woofie
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To: Vince Ferrer
The Anthony Weiner of the natural world.

I don't think so. Weiner sits for still photographs; all show and no go.

11 posted on 10/08/2013 10:52:08 PM PDT by trubolotta
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To: woofie

Maybe not, but their life sure sounds like that of some gay men.


12 posted on 10/08/2013 10:52:28 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: melsec

They do it until they get gangrene?


13 posted on 10/08/2013 10:52:58 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Olog-hai

That’s because antechinus’s don’t have family courts.


14 posted on 10/08/2013 10:55:53 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

SSSEEEEXXXXXX!

15 posted on 10/08/2013 10:59:32 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!©)
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To: Slings and Arrows
I wonder if evolutionists will jump all over the fact that they’ve found the missing link; the ancestor to the Muslim world, a population of men who will rape any female until eventually they fall apart and die.
16 posted on 10/08/2013 11:00:40 PM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

No but they might need a few shots by the time they get home!


17 posted on 10/08/2013 11:02:25 PM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong.)
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To: melsec

It ain’t a Spring Break until the Infectious Disease doc says “You’ve got WHAT?!”


18 posted on 10/08/2013 11:03:55 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Death by Snu-Snu!


19 posted on 10/08/2013 11:04:35 PM PDT by ConservativeTeen (Proud Right Wing Extremist)
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To: kingu

I thought Mohammedans preferred little boys and goats. (Not necessarily in that order.)


20 posted on 10/08/2013 11:05:07 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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