© irene waters 2014
The Tasmanian Devil in the shadows is almost a shadow in our memories. Once common on mainland Australia for probably the last 3,000 years the only place in the world they live in the wild is in Tasmania. The size of a small dog, the devil is the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world now that the Tasmanian Tiger (the Thylacine) is extinct. They belong to the family Dasyuridae which are a marsupial family found in Australia and New Guinea and includes marsupial mice and the vicious quoll.
© irene waters 2014
The Devil is itself vicious and is extremely malodorous with a high pitch loud screech and a keen sense of smell. Unlike other marsupials they can control their temperature allowing them to be active during the day although they are nocturnal by nature. They can run extremely fast, climb trees and swim rivers and travel up to 16 kms to catch their prey. They have a distinctive white band across their chest and this is unique to each Devil and acts as fingerprints do for us. It’s ferocity when eating is second to none as it devours its prey bones and all. The design of the Devil’s head and neck allow it to generate massive force in its jaws. In fact it has the strongest bite per unit of body mass of all the existing land mammals in the world. It feeds on prey, carrion and scavenging from humans. A male Tasmanian Devil in one eating session can consume a quarter of its own body weight.
© irene waters 2014
Females spend most of their life producing and rearing young. In their average four breeding seasons the female will give birth to around 20 – 30 live young but as the female only has four teats it really becomes survival of the fittest as the young fight for position. Few of the young survive. They are in the backward facing pouch for approximately four months where they grow rapidly. Once they have been ejected from the pouch the mother continues to care for the young until around 9 months of age.
In the early days of settlement the farmers believed the Devil was responsible for many livestock deaths and they were hunted to almost extinction. By 1941 they were a protected species and numbers again started to increase. They are again on the decline as in the 1990’s a disease – a facial tumour – has decimated the population which were already struggling due to a declining habitat and the number which have ended up as road kill as they eat other road kill.
There are virtually none to be seen outside Australia, apart from the Looney Tunes character, due to export restrictions and failure of the Devils that were already residing overseas to breed. Australia zoo has had a very successful breeding programme with 5 joeys produced in 2011.
© irene waters 2014
This is in response to Shadow Shot Sunday
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
I had assumed they were vicious from their names but they don;t deserve to be pressured to extinction. I wonder why they don’t breed in captivity away from Australia/Tasmania? They are unique! Do they attack people?
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I think they got their name from the European settlers who heard their horrendous cries, and smelt them and probably getting a fright from the black and whiteanimal with red ears, pink mouth and huge teeth and then embelllished their encounter to that of an encounter with the devil. To my knowledge they don’t attack humans although they will protect themselves and would be capable of giving a nasty bite. (I think). On the whole, I think they are quite timid and like most timid animals would prefer to escape. Why they don’t breed overseas I don’t know.
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Amazing characters. Their snarling sound can be intimidating, accompanied by the rather unglamorous view of their open mouth. But they are unique and special and precious. Gorgeous first photo.
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Thanks Gemma. Yes it would be a real pity if we lost these unique Australian animals. I hadn’t seen them before my visit to Australia zoo – wonderful.
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Spooky. I heard they were dying of some kind of face cancer.
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Yes they suffer from facial cancers which from the appearance of the lesions to death is approximately 5 months. They die due to starvation as they find it increasingly difficult to eat. The cancer is contagious (one of only three cancers which are transmissable) but there is no evidence that it spreads between species. Treatment is difficult and to date no way has been found to treat the tumours and keep the animals in the wild. But you never know what is around the corner.
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Fascinating creatures. I enjoyed seeing these shots and learning a little more about them.
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Glad to hear it Kylie and great to have you visit.
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So sad. I’m glad you got pictures of them (and thanks for sharing info. about this species–very interesting).
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Glad you found them interesting. It would be sad to lose them.
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Wow. Staggering facts for the Taz. I didn’t know all of these facts.So very sad. I hope they make a comeback again and not fall to the same fate as the tiger. Thank you for such an informative post!
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You’re welcome Paula. I don’t think they are near extinction but certainly on the endangered list. Thanks for dropping by.
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What an interesting and informative post. I had no idea! Not too warm and fuzzy…
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At Australia zoo they let people by appointment have hands on contact with the help of the keeper. I think the smell would be enough to keep the cuddling at arms length. They have whiskers placed all over their heads which apparently aids when communally eating. If the whiskers aren’t touching you are safe from being chomped. You are probably right – not too warm and fuzzy.
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Fascinating! I grew up with the Looney Tunes character so my knowledge is limited and skewed. I thought they might look more like wolverines, but they are different. Sad that they are battling cancer. Any scientists proposing why?
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It would appear that the cancers are caused by an accumulaton of exposure to UV rays – an effect of climate change. However as the animals now being affected are younger (initially only older animals were affected) there is some question as to the veracity of this. The cancer however is contagious – the cancer itself is a parasite and spreads between devils in the population. (One of only three contagious cancers known.) Treatment is difficult because they can’t successfully treat wild animals for cancer and they want to keep a wild population. The work goes on.
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Thanks Irene. A fascinating read. I saw them at the zoo in Sydney fifteen years or so ago and thought then how sad it was they had such a harsh name. When we came home from our visit we had a toy devil alongside the inevitable koala and my fav the echidna. Much loved to pieces quite literally.
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I’d say you saw them before me. Those pictured were the first I had seen and they looked sleek and well fed. I know what you mean about loved to pieces literally. My brothers koala was like that first no hair and then the seams started going. I don’t know what eventually happened to them (mine you could tell was unloved as he was as hairy as the day received.)
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I felt annoyed with my own stupidity really in not looking out for them. The Vet was and remains the one most angered by it. Thank you for e lovely comments.
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Don’t blame yourself though I still want to know where my book Eloise in Moscow went.
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I hope you were not too close for the photos since they are so dangerous! Great shots!
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Thanks. No I wasn’t too close to them but I don’t think they have ever attacked a human. 🙂
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An interesting post and I love your photos. I always think of the loony tunes character when in fact the real animals are nothing like it. 😀
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I don’t have a great memory of the Loony Tunes character although I knew he existed but I imagine they gave him a devilish character. 🙂
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A totally excellent post, Irene ! – but I did see a short doco. a coupla months back showing how they’ve been releasing Devils into huge protected areas in NSW … Here’s hoping I didn’t get that wrong. 😐
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Now you mention it I too recall they are releasing them into the Barrington Tops near where I used to live. Lets hope the programme is successful and the little Devils thrive.:)
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How nice to see them. I did see a program about how they introcuces some Devils to Tasmania. I think it was 6 of them and the change they made to wildlife during the time they followed them. It seemd like they turned the widllife back to order. 🙂 It was an interesting program.
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That would have been interesting. I saw what sound a similar documentary on the reintroduction of some animal, I think it was a bear but it may have been a big cat, and it totally put the area back in order. It just shows how important every creature is to the order of things and how we shouldn’t interfere with nature.
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