Sex-Crazed Quolls Forget to Groom, Eat

A new study tracks the movements of Australia’s endangered northern quoll, a small carnivorous marsupial. Researchers found that the males are losing so much sleep looking for mates that it’s killing them.

“They cover large distances to mate as often as possible and it seems that their drive is so strong that they forgo sleeping to spend more time searching for females,” Christofer Clemente, senior lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, told BBC News.

The researchers placed tracking devices on both male and female quolls, then collected data over 42 days on Groote Eylandt, an island off the Northern Territory coast. The males definitely got their steps in: some trekked over six miles in one night, the equivalent of a 25-mile hike for a human.

“Sleep deprivation, and associated symptoms for a prolonged duration would make recuperation impossible and could explain the causes of death recorded in the males after breeding season,” said Joshua Gaschk, the study’s lead author. “They become easy prey, are unable to avoid vehicle collisions, or simply die from exhaustion.”

The male mini-marsupials also attracted more parasites since they spent less time grooming. Neither did they exert themselves searching for food, what with putting all their energy into reproducing.

There are about 100,000 northern quolls in the wild but the numbers are in rapid decline. The usual threat – habitat loss due to development – is one reason, along with some unusual threats: dingoes, feral cats, and poisoning by cane toad. No wonder they’re so keen to reproduce, but that too is killing them.

The research appears in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Photo credit: Kaylah Del Simone / University of Queensland / AFP / Getty Images