Tag Archive for 'Tasmanian Devil'

The Effort to Study the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease

Published on November 26, 2009 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Here is a nice article about a effort on Tasmania to conserve the wild Tasmanian Devil population that continues to be ravaged by the facial tumor disease:

‘Skinny boy’ is back. The three-year-old Tasmanian devil is a serial offender. Thin and hungry, he’d been among the first devils trapped last March during the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s (TMAG) field trip to the remote coast south of Cape Sorell, halfway up Tasmania’s west coast. And here he is the very next day, again at the wrong end of a metre-long PVC tube trap.

“He has this big open wound, from under his chin right down his chest,” says scientific officer Billie Lazenby, as she peers down at Skinny Boy in the upended trap while wriggling her hands into disposable latex gloves. “Yesterday it had this yucky flap of skin hanging off it. He’d most likely have gotten it fighting.”

With help from fellow researcher Brian Looker, Billie slides Skinny Boy into a fresh hessian bag, which she carries to where veterinarian Jemma Bergfeld is pulling on her disposable gloves. Brian, meanwhile, wanders away with the empty trap and dons his elbow-length rubber gloves and starts thoroughly cleaning the trap with water, brushes and an industrial-strength disinfectant named Virkon.

All these gloves and cleanliness hint at the reason the TMAG team is here, on this rarely visited stretch of coast. The devils here have never been studied, but mere zoological curiosity wouldn’t have got the helicopter flying here. It was Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). This deadly, transmissible cancer – responsible for rapidly wiping out three-quarters of devils in areas where it’s found – has invaded about two-thirds of Tasmania. But, it seems, it isn’t here. Not yet. None of the devils trapped so far on this trip has shown signs of the disease.

Softly spoken and reassuringly gentle with her marsupial charge, Billie settles down on the sandy track beside Jemma, who is preparing her tools of trade – needles and phials for collecting blood samples. Billie positions Skinny Boy so that Jemma can extract her samples. He isn’t the first devil recaptured on the 10 km long line of 40 traps, and won’t be the last, according to team leader David ‘Doozie’ Pemberton.

“A lot of animals are incredibly wary of traps,” Doozie says. “Some ?just can’t be trapped. Devils, however… they’re probably the most trap-happy animals I’ve studied.”

Once Billie and Jemma have the blood samples they start examining Skinny Boy’s wound, a fist-sized patch of raw flesh on his chest. “There’s no sign of infection,” Jemma says. “For such a big wound it looks really good. I reckon he’ll be fine.”  [Australian Geographic]

You can read the rest of the article at the link.

Friday Eco-Fact: How Aggressive are Tasmanian Devils?

Published on May 29, 2009 in Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Slate’s Christopher Beam answers a readers question on if Tasmanian Devils are as aggressive as the Looney Tunes character:

A rapidly spreading, deadly facial tumor virus has killed off 70 percent of the wild population of Tasmanian devils, leading the Australian government
to designate the creature “endangered” on Friday. The world’s most
famous Tasmanian devil, the character Taz from Looney Tunes, is
aggressive and excitable. Are the real ones like that, too?

Yes, especially when feeding. Although devils do hunt other
animals—wallabies, possums, and wombats are especially
attractive—they’re primarily scavengers. They scavenge in groups of
five to 12, possibly because it’s easier to pull apart a carcass
together than alone. The competition for limited resources makes each
devil highly protective of its share of the food. While eating, they
emit a blood-curdling screech and nip at one another’s faces, often drawing blood.

Mating
is also a violent process. Males fight over females, and whoever wins
grabs the female by the scruff of her neck and drags her back to a den,
where they mate. (Watch two male devils fight over a female here.)
The male must then defend the female during her 21-day gestation
period, lest other males come and try to mate with her, too. The babies
also have to fight one another—female devils give birth to 40 or 50
young every season, all of whom must compete for their mother’s four
teats. [Slate]

Make sure to read the rest.  

The Tasmanian Devil like most of the wildlife in Australia is a marsupial meaning that it reproduces and nurtures its young inside of a pocket.  It is also the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world.  It used to be the second largest until the Thylacine otherwise known as a Tasmanian Tiger went extinct in 1936.  Another interesting fact about the devils is that they have the strongest bite of any mammal because of its need to break bones when feeding.  

The devils are currently only found on the island of Tasmania though they once populated mainland Australia up to 400 years ago.  It is expected that the devils went extinct on the mainland due to competition for food from the Australian dingo that was introduced to the mainland by Indonesian traders 3,500 years ago.  The fact that the devils are only found on the small island of Tasmania means is what makes the facial tumor disease so dangerous to the species. 

The devil facial tumor spreads from one devil to another when they bite at each other faces while feeding in packs.  The disease then spreads to the neck of the devil where it then suffocates to death.  It is really quite a cruel way to die.  There is so far no cure for the disease that has killed roughly 50% of the devil population on Tasmania.  About 65% of the island has been infected with the disease with only the remote western area of the island free from the disease.  No one knows for sure what caused the virus, but it is suspected that the disease was started from devils foraging in trash cans. The devils immune system were not able to respond to the virus because of the lack of genetic diversity in the devils due to their isolation on Tasmania.

This disease hasn’t stopped the usual global warming alarmists from claiming that climate change is killing the Tasmanian Devils:

Through our growing numbers, our thirst for natural resources and, most
of all, climate change — which, by one reckoning, could help carry off
20% to 30% of all species before the end of the century — we’re shaping
an Earth that will be biologically impoverished. A 2008 assessment by
the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that nearly 1
in 4 mammals worldwide was at risk for extinction, including endangered
species like the famous Tasmanian devil.  [TIME]

It is incredible to me that a major news magazine like TIME could print such blatant propaganda as this.  This is just another perfect example of how the global warming alarmists are obscuring legitimate environmental issues such as the one facing the devils with their misinformation. 

While the alarmist continue their activities the real environmentalists are working hard to save the devils.  To prevent extinction of the species populations of the devils that are free of disease have been moved to the Australian mainland to be kept in zoos and animal sanctuaries such as the Healsville Animal Sanctuary in Victoria. 

The devils are on the verge of extinction, but lets hope that the work of both conservationists and scientists will be able to save this incredibly unique part of Australia’s biodiversity.