You have probably never heard of quolls, and neither had I until I saw an intriguing article on quolls, the other day. The title, of course, played a role in attracting attnetion, as it started with «Dying for sex: .....».
The story is that the northern quolls which are found in northern Australia, and are among the endangered species, only have a 1-season mating experience. Apparently the male quolls roam around and walk long distances during the mating season to find partner(s). After they mate, they eventually die, for various reasons, but the scientists who conducted a study believe it is due to a lack of sleep on the part of the male quolls during the mating season.
The other interesting part is that the female quolls live on, but they only reproduce once. In other words, the remaining years (and they live between 3 to 4 years) they are barren. What I could not find out, is whether the females refrain from having sex the remainder of the years, or that their pregnancy metabolic just shuts down after one season of pregnancy.
Another interesting characteristic of reproduction in quolls is that the females have 6 to 8 breasts, but that they could bring to life dozens of ‘puppies’, who would have to fight for food, or die. Talking about survival of the fittest and thrown into fire from birth!
So according to the study, the story is that the male quolls are so busy walking and roaming for mates, that they only sleep 8% of their day, whereas the females sleep on the average a quarter of their day, and this difference in sleep time could explain the early death.
Now, I have an even more intricate question to which I do not have the answer:
Are the quolls single or multi partner animals. Furthermore, if a male quoll falls on a female quoll who will no longer have any children, what happens? Must tell you this quoll story is pretty intriguing, so I included the link to the article on the bottom.
Paris, February 2, 2023
Zeejay