Who are we kidding, this is the same animal as the dusky antechinus, but it lives in a swamp, yo.
My sources say the s.a. can be distinguished from the other one by its slightly shorter snout. Its fur is brown with a lighter belly.
These things are relatively common throughout wet buttongrass moorland and coastal heath through Tasmania and the Bass Strait Islands. A subspecies, A. m. maritimus, also occurs in the far southeastern coastal margin of mainland Australia, where its habitat is being destroyed.
The swamp antechinus is most active at dusk, although it does regularly forage during the day. Its diet includes insects, lizards, worms and spiders!
But Jessie, what about the fucking?
Just like the dusky antechinus, copulation occurs during a short season in winter, followed by the die-off of almost all males in the population. During the breeding season, the female develops a shallow, pouch-like fold in the mammary (haha I said "mammary!") area. Does the dusky one do this? I don't know.
The female gives birth after a four-week gestation period. Six young are born (there are six teats in the pouch) and are carried in the pouch for up to eight weeks. Young are then left in a den before becoming independent at about three months, whoop.