Variety is the spice of life: too many males, too little time...

Female Australian painted dragon lizards are polyandrous, that is, they mate with as many males as they can safely get access to. This promiscuous behaviour is often found in species where male quality is dubious and there are high levels of infertility in the male population. Female painted dragons possess the remarkable ability to store sperm inside their reproductive tract that remain viable for a considerable amount of time, so that the sperm of different males actually compete with each other to fertilise her eggs.