Trigger warning, a few pictures of a dead animal follow, also some material of a sexual nature, but be assured no cruelty or misadventure is indicated.
Out on my daily walk I came across a little dead mammal on a bush track. Strange. Dead animals are not usually left animals alone for long making a handy meal for the many scavengers of the bush; rats, monitors, owls, foxes. I bent down and had a sniff, it smelt a little, maybe it and been dead for a day or two. The eyes were receding. I noticed it had a pointy snout and little serrated teeth like a steak knife. It was an Antichinus, a small carnivorous marsupial “mouse”. I took a couple of photos in the fading light and wandered on thinking about how and why the animal came to be lying there. Dead as a doornail.
For the sake of comparison here below are two skulls, a Brown Antechinus (a) on the left and a mouse on the right (b). Notice the large protruding incisors of the rodent compared to the long row of teeth in the antechinus. Note also the pointed arrangement of toes on the feet of the antechinus and the toes of the antechinus are separated while they are fused in the mouse.
Some way down the track I stopped and turned back to check for testicles. Sure enough, bold as brass, a huge scrotal sac, indicating a dead male antechinus. The cause of death now obvious, over-exertion during breeding season. Facts furnished here by the Australian Museum “Males live for approximately 11 months and have a short breeding cycle of about 2 weeks in winter, after which they die as a result of stress and exhaustion. Females give birth to undeveloped naked young that latch onto teats in the pouch for up to 50 days. The pouch is an open slit found on the belly.”
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