Fatal Attraction: Meet the Marsupials that Literally Sex Themselves to Death

Most animals will go to great lengths to find a mate and ensure their survival, but the fatal attraction between certain marsupials takes it too far, causing these species to literally sex themselves to death.

Scientists at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have discovered two more species of suicidally-sexed marsupials in Australia. One new species of Dusky Antechinus was discovered in remote, south-eastern Tasmania and another mainland form was raised to species status. These additions mean the team has now identified five new species of antechinus in the past three years alone - a 50 percent increase in diversity within this long-known genus of mammals.

However, the researchers believe three of the new antechinus are already destined for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with factors such as climate change, feral pests and habitat loss putting increased pressure on these marsupial populations.

"We discovered the Tasman Peninsula Dusky Antechinus not far from the old European settlement town of Port Arthur in Tasmania," Dr. Andrew Baker, a mammologist from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty who led the study, said in a statement. "Most of its limited habitat falls within state forest, which is being logged. This species now apparently only lives in tiny, fragmented stands of intact forest that are under threat."

In addition, the Black-tailed and the Silver-headed Antechinus, which live on remote mountaintops spanning just a few miles in Queensland, may have the smallest natural habitat of any mammal in Australia. And soon they may have nowhere left to run as warming temperatures force them to higher and higher ground.