Journal article
Resting disparity in quoll semelparity: examining the sex-linked behaviours of wild roaming northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) during breeding season
Royal Society Open Science, Vol.10(2), pp.1-12
2023
PMCID: PMC9890097
PMID: 36756058
Related media
Expert Quote
Too much sex and not enough sleep is deadly for endangered marsupial
UniSC NewsAbstract
Semelparity is a breeding strategy whereby an individual invests large amounts of resources into a single breeding season, leading to the death of the individual. Male northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) are the largest known mammal to experience a post-breeding die-off; however, the cause of their death is unknown, dissimilar from causes in other semelparous dasyurids. To identify potential differences between male northern quolls that breed once, and females that can breed for up to four seasons, the behaviours, activity budgets, speeds and distances travelled were examined. Northern quolls were captured on Groote Eylandt off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia, and were fitted with accelerometers. A machine learning algorithm (Self-organizing Map) was trained on more than 76 h of recorded footage of quoll behaviours and used to predict behaviours in 42 days of data from wild roaming quolls (7M : 6F). Male northern quolls were more active (male 1.27 g, s.d. = 0.41; female 1.18 g, s.d. = 0.36), spent more time walking (13.09% male: 8.93% female) and engaged in less lying/resting behaviour than female northern quolls (7.67% male: 23.65% female). Reduced resting behaviour among males could explain the post-breeding death as the deterioration in appearance reflects that reported for sleep-deprived rodents.
Details
- Title
- Resting disparity in quoll semelparity: examining the sex-linked behaviours of wild roaming northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) during breeding season
- Authors
- Joshua L. Gaschk (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringKaylah Del Simone (Author) - The University of QueenslandRobbie S. Wilson (Author) - The University of QueenslandChristofer J. Clemente (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Royal Society Open Science, Vol.10(2), pp.1-12
- Publisher
- The Royal Society Publishing
- Date published
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.1098/rsos.221180
- ISSN
- 2054-5703
- PMID
- 36756058; PMC9890097
- Copyright note
- © 2023 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering; School of Health - Public Health
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99704785102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
9 File views/ downloads
24 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Zoology
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: SDGs from InCites