A tiny marsupial, a mouse-like creature, called the black-tailed dusky antechinus, might have been wiped out by the summer bushfires that ravaged Australia and which were so well publicised.
Scientists have searched the habitat of this marsupial and failed to find any of them. They were considered endangered and it is possible that they have become extinct.
The males have a high sex drive. They engage in 14 hour sex sessions with females and have sex with as many females as they can during a two to three week mating season. This causes their bodies to be flooded with testosterone, a stress hormone, which in turn leads to internal bleeding and immune system failure. They die after weeks of continuous sex sessions.
Scientists normally find at least twenty of these cute and small animals when they conduct field trips in their habitat which is the colder, misty mountain top locations to where they retreated because of drought. The droughts had also impacted their population numbers.
