The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii'') (

palawa kani Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the eas ...

: purinina) is a carnivorous

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a ...

of the family

Dasyuridae The Dasyuridae are a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, including 71 extant species divided into 17 genera. Many are small and mouse-like or shrew-like, giving some of them the name marsupial mice or marsupial shrews, but th ...

. Until recently, it was only found on the island

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, but it has been reintroduced to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in mainland Australia, with a small breeding population. The size of a small dog, the Tasmanian devil became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

of the

thylacine The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasma ...

in 1936. It is related to

quolls Quolls (; genus ''Dasyurus'') are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Anoth ...

, and distantly related to the thylacine. It is characterised by its stocky and muscular build, black fur, pungent odour, extremely loud and disturbing screech, keen sense of smell, and ferocity when feeding. The Tasmanian devil's large head and neck allow it to generate among the strongest bites per unit body mass of any extant predatory land mammal. It hunts prey and scavenges on carrion. Although devils are usually solitary, they sometimes eat and defecate together in a communal location. Unlike most other dasyurids, the devil thermoregulates effectively, and is active during the middle of the day without overheating. Despite its rotund appearance, it is capable of surprising speed and endurance, and can climb trees and swim across rivers. Devils are not monogamous. Males fight one another for females, and guard their partners to prevent female infidelity. Females can ovulate three times in as many weeks during the

mating season Seasonal breeders are animal species that successfully mate only during certain times of the year. These times of year allow for the optimization of survival of young due to factors such as ambient temperature, food and water availability, and ch ...

, and 80% of two-year-old females are seen to be pregnant during the annual mating season. Females average four breeding seasons in their life, and give birth to 20 to 30 live young after three weeks' gestation. The newborn are pink, lack fur, have indistinct facial features, and weigh around at birth. As there are only four nipples in the pouch, competition is fierce, and few newborns survive. The young grow rapidly, and are ejected from the pouch after around 100 days, weighing roughly . The young become independent after around nine months. In 1941, devils became officially protected. Since the late 1990s, the

devil facial tumour disease Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is an aggressive non-viral clonally transmissible cancer which affects Tasmanian devils, a marsupial native to Australia. DFTD was first described in 1996. In the subsequent decade the disease ravaged Tasmania's ...

(DFTD) has drastically reduced the population and now threatens the survival of the species, which in 2008 was declared to be

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

. Starting in 2013, Tasmanian devils are again being sent to zoos around the world as part of the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...

's Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. The devil is an iconic symbol of Tasmania and many organisations, groups and products associated with the state use the animal in their logos. It is seen as an important attractor of tourists to Tasmania and has come to worldwide attention through the '' Looney Tunes'' character of the same name.

Taxonomy

Believing it to be a type of opossum, naturalist George Harris wrote the first published description of the Tasmanian devil in 1807, naming it ''Didelphis ursina'', due to its bearlike characteristics such as the round ear. He had earlier made a presentation on the topic at the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

. However, that particular binomial name had been given to the common wombat (later reclassified as ''Vombatus ursinus'') by

George Shaw George Shaw may refer to: * George Shaw (biologist) (1751–1813), English botanist and zoologist * George B. Shaw (1854–1894), U.S. Representative from Wisconsin * George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Irish playwright * George C. Shaw (1866–196 ...

in 1800, and was hence unavailable. In 1838, a specimen was named ''Dasyurus laniarius'' by Richard Owen,Online
at Project Gutenberg Australia. but by 1877 he had relegated it to ''Sarcophilus''. The modern Tasmanian devil was named ''Sarcophilus harrisii'' ("Harris's flesh-lover") by French naturalist

Pierre Boitard Pierre Boitard (27 April 1787 Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire – 25 August 1859) was a French botanist and geologist. As well as describing and classifying the Tasmanian devil, he is notable for his fictional natural history ''Paris avant les homm ...

in 1841. A later revision of the devil's taxonomy, published in 1987, attempted to change the species name to ''Sarcophilus laniarius'' based on mainland fossil records of only a few animals. However, this was not accepted by the taxonomic community at large; the name ''S. harrisii'' has been retained and ''S. laniarius'' relegated to a fossil species. "

Beelzebub Beelzebub ( ; he, ''Baʿal-zəḇūḇ'') or Beelzebul is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshipped in Ekron, and later adopted by some Abrahamic religions as a major demon. The name ''Beelzebub'' is associated with the Can ...

's pup" was an early vernacular name given to it by the explorers of Tasmania, in reference to a religious figure who is a prince of hell and an assistant of Satan;Owen and Pemberton, p. 8. the explorers first encountered the animal by hearing its far-reaching vocalisations at night. Related names that were used in the 19th century were ''Sarcophilus satanicus'' ("Satanic flesh-lover") and ''Diabolus ursinus'' ("bear devil"), all due to early misconceptions of the species as implacably vicious. The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii'') belongs to the family

. The genus ''Sarcophilus'' contains two other species, known only from

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

fossils: ''S. laniarius'' and ''S. moomaensis''.

Phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analysis shows that the Tasmanian devil is most closely related to

quoll Quolls (; genus ''Dasyurus'') are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Anoth ...

s. According to Pemberton, the possible ancestors of the devil may have needed to climb trees to acquire food, leading to a growth in size and the hopping gait of many marsupials. He speculated that these adaptations may have caused the contemporary devil's peculiar gait.Owen and Pemberton, p. 34. The specific lineage of the Tasmanian devil is theorised to have emerged during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

, molecular evidence suggesting a split from the ancestors of quolls between 10 and 15 million years ago, when severe climate change came to bear in Australia, transforming the climate from warm and moist to an arid, dry ice age, resulting in mass extinctions. As most of their prey died of the cold, only a few carnivores survived, including the ancestors of the

and

. It is speculated that the devil lineage may have arisen at this time to fill a niche in the ecosystem, as a scavenger that disposed of carrion left behind by the selective-eating thylacine. The extinct ''

Glaucodon ''Glaucodon'' is an extinction, extinct genus of marsupial from Australia.Gerdtz, W. and Archbold, N. (2003) ''Glaucodon ballaratensis'' (Marsupialia, Dasyuridae), a Late Pliocene 'Devil' from Batesford, Victoria, Proceedings of the Royal Society ...

ballaratensis'' of the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 Fossil deposits in limestone caves at

Naracoorte, South Australia Naracoorte is a town in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia, approximately 336 kilometres south-east of Adelaide and 100 kilometres north of Mount Gambier on the Riddoch Highway (A66). History Before the colonisation of South Australi ...

, dating to the

include specimens of '' S. laniarius'', which were around 15% larger and 50% heavier than modern devils.Owen and Pemberton, p. 35. Older specimens believed to be 50–70,000 years old were found in

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was general ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is not clear whether the modern devil evolved from ''S. laniarius'', or whether they coexisted at the time.Owen and Pemberton, p. 36. Richard Owen argued for the latter hypothesis in the 19th century, based on fossils found in 1877 in

. Large bones attributed to ''S. moornaensis'' have been found in New South Wales, and it has been conjectured that these two extinct larger species may have hunted and scavenged. It is known that there were several genera of thylacine millions of years ago, and that they ranged in size, the smaller being more reliant on foraging.Owen and Pemberton, p. 37. As the devil and thylacine are similar, the extinction of the co-existing thylacine genera has been cited as evidence for an analogous history for the devils.Owen and Pemberton, p. 38. It has been speculated that the smaller size of ''S. laniarius'' and ''S. moornaensis'' allowed them to adapt to the changing conditions more effectively and survive longer than the corresponding thylacines. As the extinction of these two species came at a similar time to human habitation of Australia, hunting by humans and land clearance have been mooted as possible causes.Owen and Pemberton, p. 39. Critics of this theory point out that as indigenous Australians only developed

boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning ...

s and spears for hunting around 10,000 years ago, a critical fall in numbers due to systematic hunting is unlikely. They also point out that caves inhabited by Aborigines have a low proportion of bones and rock paintings of devils, and suggest that this is an indication that it was not a large part of indigenous lifestyle. A scientific report in 1910 claimed that Aborigines preferred the meat of herbivores rather than carnivores. The other main theory for the extinction was that it was due to the climate change brought on by the most recent ice age.

Genetics

Karyotype of Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus Harrisii)

The Tasmanian devil's

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding g ...

was sequenced in 2010 by the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is located on the Wellcome G ...

. Like all dasyurids, the devil has 14 chromosomes.Tyndale-Biscoe, p. 143. Devils have a low genetic diversity compared to other Australian marsupials and placental carnivores; this is consistent with a founder effect as allelic size ranges were low and nearly continuous throughout all subpopulations measured. Allelic diversity was measured at 2.7–3.3 in the subpopulations sampled, and

heterozygosity Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mo ...

was in the range 0.386–0.467. According to a study by Menna Jones, " gene flow appears extensive up to ", meaning a high assignment rate to source or close neighbour populations "in agreement with movement data. At larger scales (), gene flow is reduced but there is no evidence for isolation by distance". Island effects may also have contributed to their low genetic diversity. Periods of low population density may also have created moderate population bottlenecks, reducing genetic diversity. Low genetic diversity is thought to have been a feature in the Tasmanian devil population since the mid-

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

. Outbreaks of

(DFTD) cause an increase in

inbreeding Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and o ...

. A sub-population of devils in the north-west of the state is genetically distinct from other devils, but there is some exchange between the two groups. One strand conformation polymorphism analysis (OSCP) on the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I domain taken from various locations across Tasmania showed 25 different types, and showed a different pattern of MHC types in north-western Tasmania to eastern Tasmania. Those devils in the east of the state have less MHC diversity; 30% are of the same type as the tumour (type 1), and 24% are of type A. Seven of every ten devils in the east are of type A, D, G or 1, which are linked to DFTD; whereas only 55% of the western devils fall into these MHC categories. Of the 25 MHC types, 40% are exclusive to the western devils. Although the north-west population is less genetically diverse overall, it has higher MHC gene diversity, which allows them to mount an immune response to DFTD. According to this research, mixing the devils may increase the chance of disease. Of the fifteen different regions in Tasmania surveyed in this research, six were in the eastern half of the island. In the eastern half, Epping Forest had only two different types, 75% being type O. In the Buckland-Nugent area, only three types were present, and there were an average of 5.33 different types per location. In contrast, in the west, Cape Sorell yielded three types, and Togari North-Christmas Hills yielded six, but the other seven sites all had at least eight MHC types, and West Pencil Pine had 15 types. There was an average of 10.11 MHC types per site in the west. Recent research has suggested that the wild population of devils are rapidly evolving a resistance to DFTD.

Description

The Tasmanian devil is the largest surviving carnivorous

. It has a squat, thick build, with a large head and a tail which is about half its body length. Unusually for a marsupial, its forelegs are slightly longer than its hind legs, and devils can run up to for short distances. The fur is usually black, often with irregular white patches on the chest and rump (although approximately 16% of wild devils do not have white patches).Owen and Pemberton, pp. 46–47. These markings suggest that the devil is most active at dawn and dusk, and they are thought to draw biting attacks toward less important areas of the body, as fighting between devils often leads to a concentration of scars in that region. Males are usually larger than females, having an average head and body length of , a tail and an average weight of . Females have an average head and body length of , a tail and an average weight of , although devils in western Tasmania tend to be smaller.Owen and Pemberton, p. 118. Devils have five long toes on their forefeet, four pointing to the front and one coming out from the side, which gives the devil the ability to hold food. The hind feet have four toes, and the devils have non-retractable claws. The stocky devils have a relatively low

centre of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

.Owen and Pemberton, p. 52. Devils are fully grown at two years of age, and few devils live longer than five years in the wild. Possibly the longest-lived Tasmanian devil recorded was Coolah, a male devil which lived in captivity for more than seven years. Born in January 1997 at the Cincinnati Zoo, Coolah died in May 2004 at the

Fort Wayne Children's Zoo The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is a zoo in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. Since opening in 1965, the 1,000-animal zoo has been located on in Fort Wayne's Franke Park. The Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo is operated by the non-profit Fort Wayne Z ...

. The devil stores body fat in its tail, and healthy devils have fat tails. The tail is largely non-prehensile and is important to its physiology, social behaviour and locomotion. It acts as a counterbalance to aid stability when the devil is moving quickly.Owen and Pemberton, p. 46. An ano-genital scent gland at the base of its tail is used to mark the ground behind the animal with its strong, pungent scent. The male has external testes in a pouch-like structure formed by lateral ventrocrural folds of the abdomen, which partially hides and protects them. The testes are subovoid in shape and the mean dimensions of 30 testes of adult males was .Guiler (1970), p. 64. The female's pouch opens backwards, and is present throughout its life, unlike some other dasyurids. Tasmanian devil skeleton

The Tasmanian devil has the most powerful bite relative to body size of any living mammalian carnivore, exerting a force of . The jaw can open to 75–80 degrees, allowing the devil to generate the large amount of power to tear meat and crush bones—sufficient force to allow it to bite through thick metal wire.Owen and Pemberton, p. 20. The power of the

jaw The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serv ...

s is in part due to its comparatively large head. The teeth and jaws of Tasmanian devils resemble those of hyenas, an example of

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

. Dasyurid teeth resemble those of primitive marsupials. Like all dasyurids, the devil has prominent canines and cheek teeth. It has three pairs of lower incisors and four pairs of upper incisors. These are located at the top of the front of the devil's mouth. Like dogs, it has 42 teeth, however, unlike dogs, its teeth are not replaced after birth but grow continuously throughout life at a slow rate.Owen and Pemberton, p. 64. It has a "highly carnivorous dentition and

trophic Trophic, from Ancient Greek τροφικός (''trophikos'') "pertaining to food or nourishment", may refer to: * Trophic cascade * Trophic coherence * Trophic egg * Trophic function * Trophic hormone * Trophic level index * Trophic level ...

adaptations for bone consumption". The devil has long claws that allow it to dig burrows and seek subterranean food easily and grip prey or mates strongly. The teeth and claw strength allow the devil to attack wombats up to in weight.Owen and Pemberton, p. 44. The large neck and forebody that give the devil its strength also cause this strength to be biased towards the front half of the body; the lopsided, awkward, shuffling gait of the devil is attributed to this.Owen and Pemberton, p. 53. The devil has long

whiskers Vibrissae (; singular: vibrissa; ), more generally called Whiskers, are a type of stiff, functional hair used by mammals to sense their environment. These hairs are finely specialised for this purpose, whereas other types of hair are coarse ...

on its face and in clumps on the top of the head. These help the devil locate prey when foraging in the dark, and aid in detecting when other devils are close during feeding. The whiskers can extend from the tip of the chin to the rear of the jaw and can cover the span of its shoulder. Hearing is its dominant sense, and it also has an excellent sense of smell, which has a range of . The devil, unlike other marsupials, has a "well-defined, saddle-shaped

ectotympanic The ectotympanic, or tympanicum, is a bony structure found in all mammals, located on the tympanic part of the temporal bone, which holds the tympanic membrane (eardrum) in place. In catarrhine primates (including humans), it takes a tube-shape. ...

". Since devils hunt at night, their vision seems to be strongest in black and white. In these conditions they can detect moving objects readily, but have difficulty seeing stationary objects.

Distribution and habitat

Devils are found in all habitats on the island of Tasmania, including the outskirts of urban areas, and are distributed throughout the Tasmanian mainland and on Robbins Island (which is connected to mainland Tasmania at low tide). The north-western population is located west of the Forth River and as far south as Macquarie Heads. Previously, they were present on

Bruny Island Bruny Island ( Nuenonne: Lunawanna-alonnah) is a island located off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is separated from the Tasmanian mainland by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and its east coast lies within the Tasman ...

from the 19th century, but there have been no records of them after 1900. They were illegally introduced to

Badger Island Badger Island, part of the Badger Group within the Furneaux Group, is a unpopulated low-lying granite and limestone island, located in Bass Strait, lying west of the Flinders and Cape Barren islands, Tasmania, south of Victoria, in south-ea ...

in the mid-1990s but were removed by the Tasmanian government by 2007. Although the Badger Island population was free from DFTD, the removed individuals were returned to the Tasmanian mainland, some to infected areas. A study has modelled the reintroduction of DFTD-free Tasmanian devils to the Australian mainland in areas where dingoes are sparse. It is proposed that devils would have fewer impacts on both livestock and native fauna than dingoes, and that the mainland population could act as an additional

insurance population Translocation in wildlife conservation is the capture, transport and release or introduction of species, habitats or other ecological material (such as soil) from one location to another. It contrasts with reintroduction, a term which is gener ...

. In September 2015, 20 immunised captive-bred devils were released into

Narawntapu National Park Narawntapu National Park (formerly known as Asbestos Range National Park) is a national park in the Australian state of Tasmania. It lies on Tasmania's north coast, adjoining Bass Strait, between Port Sorell in the west and the mouth of the Tam ...

, Tasmania. Two later died from being hit by cars. The "core habitat" of the devils is considered to be within the " low to moderate annual rainfall zone of eastern and north-western Tasmania". Tasmanian devils particularly like dry

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

forests and coastal woodlands. Although they are not found at the highest altitudes of Tasmania, and their

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

is low in the button grass plains in the south-west of the state, their population is high in dry or mixed sclerophyll forests and coastal heaths. Devils prefer open forest to tall forest, and dry rather than wet forests. They are also found near roads where roadkill is prevalent, although the devils themselves are often killed by vehicles while retrieving the carrion. According to the Threatened Species Scientific Committee, their versatility means that habitat modification from destruction is not seen as a major threat to the species. The devil is directly linked to the '' Dasyurotaenia robusta'', a

tapeworm Eucestoda, commonly referred to as tapeworms, is the larger of the two subclasses of flatworms in the class Cestoda (the other subclass is Cestodaria). Larvae have six posterior hooks on the scolex (head), in contrast to the ten-hooked Cesto ...

which is classified as Rare under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. This tapeworm is found only in devils. In late 2020, the species was reintroduced to mainland Australia, in a sanctuary run by Aussie Ark in the

Barrington Tops Barrington Tops is part of the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales, Australia, between Gloucester and Scone. In 1934, the area was difficult to access and was described as being "not traceable to any man-made feature". Part of the area has ...

area of

. This was the first time devils had lived on the Australian mainland in over 3,000 years. 26 adult devils were released into the protected area, and by late April 2021, seven

joeys The Australia national under-17 soccer team represents Australia in men's international under-17 soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for Football in Australia, Football Federation Australia (FFA), which is currently a membe ...

had been born, with up to 20 expected by the end of the year.

Ecology and behaviour

The Tasmanian devil is a keystone species in the ecosystem of Tasmania. It is a nocturnal and crepuscular hunter, spending the days in dense bush or in a hole. It has been speculated that nocturnalism may have been adopted to avoid predation by eagles and humans. Young devils are predominantly crepuscular. There is no evidence of

torpor Torpor is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually marked by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. Torpor enables animals to survive periods of reduced food availability. The term "torpor" can refer to the time ...

. Young devils can climb trees, but this becomes more difficult as they grow larger. Devils can scale trees of trunk diameter larger than , which tend to have no small side branches to hang onto, up to a height of around . Devils that are yet to reach maturity can climb shrubs to a height of , and can climb a tree to if it is not vertical. Adult devils may eat young devils if they are very hungry, so this climbing behaviour may be an adaptation to allow young devils to escape. Devils can also swim and have been observed crossing rivers that are in width, including icy cold waterways, apparently enthusiastically.Owen and Pemberton, pp. 21–22. Tasmanian devils do not form packs, but rather spend most of their time alone once weaned. Classically considered as

solitary animals Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother was ...

, their social interactions were poorly understood. However, a

field study Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fi ...

published in 2009 shed some light on this. Tasmanian devils in

were fitted with proximity sensing radio collars which recorded their interactions with other devils over several months from February to June 2006. This revealed that all devils were part of a single huge contact network, characterised by male-female interactions during mating season, while female–female interactions were the most common at other times, although frequency and patterns of contact did not vary markedly between seasons. Previously thought to fight over food, males only rarely interacted with other males. Hence, all devils in a region are part of a single social network. They are considered to be non-territorial in general, but females are territorial around their dens. This allows a higher total mass of devils to occupy a given area than territorial animals, without conflict. Tasmanian devils instead occupy a

home range A home range is the area in which an animal lives and moves on a periodic basis. It is related to the concept of an animal's territory which is the area that is actively defended. The concept of a home range was introduced by W. H. Burt in 1943. He ...

. In a period of between two and four weeks, devils' home ranges are estimated to vary between , with an average of . The location and geometry of these areas depend on the distribution of food, particularly

wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

and

pademelon Pademelons are small, furry, hopping mammals in the genus ''Thylogale'', found in Australia and New Guinea. They are some of the smallest members of the macropod family (Macropodidae), which includes the similar-looking but larger kangaroos an ...

s nearby. Devils use three or four dens regularly. Dens formerly owned by

wombats Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are adap ...

are especially prized as maternity dens because of their security. Dense vegetation near creeks, thick grass tussocks, and caves are also used as dens. Adult devils use the same dens for life. It is believed that, as a secure den is highly prized, some may have been used for several centuries by generations of animals. Studies have suggested that food security is less important than den security, as

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

that affects the latter has had more effect on mortality rates. Young pups remain in one den with their mother, and other devils are mobile,Owen and Pemberton, pp. 76–77. changing dens every 1–3 days and travelling a

mean There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

distance of every night. However, there are also reports that an upper bound can be per night. They choose to travel through lowlands, saddles and along the banks of creeks, particularly preferring carved-out tracks and livestock paths and eschewing steep slopes and rocky terrain. The amount of movement is believed to be similar throughout the year, except for mothers who have given birth recently. The similarity in travel distances for males and females is unusual for sexually dimorphic, solitary carnivores. As a male needs more food, he will spend more time eating than travelling. Devils typically make circuits of their home range during their hunts. In areas near human habitation, they are known to steal clothes, blankets and pillows and take them for use in dens in wooden buildings. While the dasyurids have similar diet and anatomy, differing body sizes affect

thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

and thus behaviour.Tyndale-Biscoe, p. 148. In ambient temperatures between , the devil was able to maintain a body temperature between . When the temperature was raised to , and the humidity to 50%, the devil's body temperature spiked upwards by within 60 minutes, but then steadily decreased back to the starting temperature after a further two hours, and remained there for two more hours. During this time, the devil drank water and showed no visible signs of discomfort, leading scientists to believe that sweating and evaporative cooling is its primary means of heat dissipation. A later study found that devils pant but do not sweat to release heat. In contrast, many other marsupials were unable to keep their body temperatures down.Tyndale-Biscoe, p. 149. As the smaller animals have to live in hotter and more arid conditions to which they are less well-adapted, they take up a nocturnal lifestyle and drop their body temperatures during the day, whereas the devil is active in the day and its body temperature varies by from its minimum at night to the maximum in the middle of the day. The standard

metabolic rate Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run ce ...

of a Tasmanian devil is 141 kJ/kg (15.3

kcal The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of o ...

/lb) per day, many times lower than smaller marsupials. A devil uses per day. The field metabolic rate is 407 kJ/kg (44.1 kcal/lb). Along with quolls, Tasmanian devils have a metabolic rate comparable to non-carnivorous marsupials of a similar size. This differs from placental carnivores, which have comparatively high basal metabolic rates. A study of devils showed a loss of weight from from summer to winter, but in the same time, daily energy consumption increased from . This is equivalent to an increase in food consumption from .Tyndale-Biscoe, p. 150. The diet is protein-based with 70% water content. For every of insects consumed, of energy are produced, while a corresponding amount of wallaby meat generated . In terms of its body mass, the devil eats only a quarter of the

eastern quoll The eastern quoll (''Dasyurus viverrinus'', formerly known as the eastern native cat) is a medium-sized carnivorous marsupial ( dasyurid), and one of six extant species of quolls. Endemic to Australia, they occur on the island state of Tasmania ...

's intake, allowing it to survive longer during food shortages.

Feeding

Tasmanian devils can take prey up to the size of a small

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

, but in practice they are opportunistic and eat carrion more often than they hunt live prey. Although the devil favours

wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are ada ...

s because of the ease of predation and high fat content, it will eat all small native mammals such as

, bettong and

potoroo Potoroo is a common name for species of ''Potorous'', a genus of smaller marsupials. They are allied to the Macropodiformes, the suborder of kangaroo, wallaby, and other rat-kangaroo genera. All three extant species are threatened by ecological c ...

s, domestic mammals (including sheep and rabbits), birds (including penguins), fish, fruit, vegetable matter, insects, tadpoles, frogs and reptiles. Their diet is widely varied and depends on the food available.Owen and Pemberton, pp. 11–13.Owen and Pemberton, p. 108. Before the extinction of the

, the Tasmanian devil ate thylacine joeys left alone in dens when their parents were away. This may have helped to hasten the extinction of the thylacine, which also ate devils. They are known to hunt water rats by the sea and forage on dead fish that have been washed ashore. Near human habitation, they can also steal shoes and chew on them, and eat the legs of otherwise robust sheep that have slipped in wooden shearing sheds, leaving their legs dangling below. Other unusual matter observed in devil scats includes collars and tags of devoured animals, intact echidna spines, pencil, plastic and jeans.Owen and Pemberton, p. 129. Devils can bite through metal traps, and tend to reserve their strong jaws for escaping captivity rather than breaking into food storage. Due to their relative lack of speed, they can not run down a wallaby or a rabbit, but they can attack animals that have become slow due to illness. They survey flocks of sheep by sniffing them from away and attack if the prey is ill. The sheep stamp their feet in a show of strength. Despite their lack of extreme speed, there have been reports that devils can run at for , and it has been conjectured that, before European immigration and the introduction of livestock, vehicles and roadkill, they would have had to chase other native animals at a reasonable pace to find food. Pemberton has reported that they can average for "extended periods" on several nights per week, and that they run for long distances before sitting still for up to half an hour, something that has been interpreted as evidence of ambush predation. Devils can dig to forage

corpse A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stu ...

s, in one case digging down to eat the corpse of a buried horse that had died due to illness. They are known to eat animal cadavers by first ripping out the digestive system, which is the softest part of the anatomy, and they often reside in the resulting cavity while they are eating. On average, devils eat about 15% of their body weight each day, although they can eat up to 40% of their body weight in 30 minutes if the opportunity arises. This means they can become very heavy and lethargic after a large meal; in this state they tend to waddle away slowly and lie down, becoming easy to approach. This has led to a belief that such eating habits became possible due to the lack of a predator to attack such bloated individuals. Tasmanian devils can eliminate all traces of a carcass of a smaller animal, devouring the bones and fur if desired. In this respect, devils have earned the gratitude of Tasmanian farmers, as the speed at which they clean a carcass helps prevent the spread of insects that might otherwise harm livestock.Owen and Pemberton, p. 14. Some of these dead animals are disposed of when the devils haul off the excess feed back to their residence to continue eating at a later time. The diet of a devil can vary substantially for males and females, and seasonally, according to studies at Cradle Mountain. In winter, males prefer medium mammals over larger ones, with a ratio of 4:5, but in summer, they prefer larger prey in a 7:2 ratio. These two categories accounted for more than 95% of the diet. Females are less inclined to target large prey, but have the same seasonal bias. In winter, large and medium mammals account for 25% and 58% each, with 7% small mammals and 10% birds. In summer, the first two categories account for 61% and 37% respectively. Juvenile devils are sometimes known to climb trees; in addition to small vertebrates and invertebrates, juveniles climb trees to eat grubs and birds' eggs. Juveniles have also been observed climbing into nests and capturing birds. Throughout the year, adult devils derive 16.2% of their biomass intake from

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose nu ...

species, almost all of which is possum meat, just 1.0% being large birds. From February to July, subadult devils derive 35.8% of their biomass intake from arboreal life, 12.2% being small birds and 23.2% being possums. Female devils in winter source 40.0% of their intake from arboreal species, including 26.7% from possums and 8.9% from various birds. Not all of these animals were caught while they were in trees, but this high figure for females, which is higher than for male spotted-tailed quolls during the same season, is unusual, as the devil has inferior tree climbing skills. Tasmanian Devils feeding

Although they hunt alone, there have been unsubstantiated claims of communal hunting, where one devil drives prey out of its habitat and an accomplice attacks. Eating is a social event for the Tasmanian devil. This combination of a solitary animal that eats communally makes the devil unique among carnivores. Much of the noise attributed to the animal is a result of raucous communal eating, at which up to 12 individuals can gather, although groups of two to five are common; it can often be heard several kilometres away. This has been interpreted as notifications to colleagues to share in the meal, so that food is not wasted by rot and energy is saved. The amount of noise is correlated to the size of the carcass. The devils eat in accordance with a system. Juveniles are active at dusk, so they tend to reach the source before the adults.Owen and Pemberton, pp. 70–73. Typically, the dominant animal eats until it is satiated and leaves, fighting off any challengers in the meantime. Defeated animals run into the bush with their hair and tail erect, their conqueror in pursuit and biting their victim's rear where possible. Disputes are less common as the food source increases as the motive appears to be getting sufficient food rather than oppressing other devils. When

s are eating a carcass, devils will tend to chase them away. This is a substantial problem for spotted-tailed quolls, as they kill relatively large possums and cannot finish their meal before devils arrive. In contrast, the smaller

s prey on much smaller victims, and can complete feeding before devils turn up. This is seen as a possible reason for the relatively small population of spotted-tailed quolls. A study of feeding devils identified twenty physical postures, including their characteristic vicious yawn, and eleven different vocal sounds that devils use to communicate as they feed. They usually establish dominance by sound and physical posturing, although fighting does occur. The white patches on the devil are visible to the night-vision of its colleagues. Chemical gestures are also used. Adult males are the most aggressive, and scarring is common. They can also stand on their hind legs and push each other's shoulders with their front legs and heads, similar to

sumo wrestling is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

. Torn flesh around the mouth and teeth, as well as punctures in the rump, can sometimes be observed, although these can also be inflicted during breeding fights. Digestion is very fast in dasyurids and, for the Tasmanian devil, the few hours taken for food to pass through the small gut is a long period in comparison to some other dasyuridae.Tyndale-Biscoe, p. 147. Devils are known to return to the same places to defecate, and to do so at a communal location, called a ''devil latrine''.Owen and Pemberton, p. 25. It is believed that the communal defecation may be a means of communication that is not well understood. Devil scats are very large compared to body size; they are on average long, but there have been samples that are in length. They are characteristically grey in colour due to digested bones, or have bone fragments included. Owen and Pemberton believe that the relationship between Tasmanian devils and thylacines was "close and complex", as they competed directly for prey and probably also for shelter. The thylacines preyed on the devils, the devils scavenged from the thylacine's kills, and the devils ate thylacine young. Menna Jones hypothesises that the two species shared the role of

apex predator An apex predator, also known as a top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own. Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophic lev ...

in Tasmania.

Wedge-tailed eagle The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...

s have a similar carrion-based diet to the devils and are regarded as competitors. Quolls and devils are also seen as being in direct competition in Tasmania. Jones believed that the quoll has evolved into its current state in just 100–200 generations of around two years as determined by the equal spacing effect on the devil, the largest species, the spotted-tail quoll, and the smallest species, the eastern quoll. Both the Tasmanian devil and the quolls appears to have evolved up to 50 times faster than the average evolutionary rate amongst mammals.

Reproduction

Females start to breed when they reach sexual maturity, typically in their second year. At this point, they become fertile once a year, producing multiple

ova , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

while in heat. As prey is most abundant in spring and early summer, the devil's reproductive cycle starts in March or April so that the end of the weaning period coincides with the maximisation of food supplies in the wild for the newly roaming young devils.Tyndale-Biscoe, p. 152. Occurring in March, mating takes places in sheltered locations during both day and night. Males fight over females in the breeding season, and female devils will

mate Mate may refer to: Science * Mate, one of a pair of animals involved in: ** Mate choice, intersexual selection ** Mating * Multi-antimicrobial extrusion protein, or MATE, an efflux transporter family of proteins Person or title * Friendship ...

with the dominant male.Owen and Pemberton, pp. 64–66. Females can ovulate up to three times in a 21-day period, and copulation can take five days; one instance of a couple being in the mating den for eight days has been recorded. Devils are not monogamous, and females will mate with several males if not guarded after mating; males also reproduce with several females during a season. Females have been shown to be selective in an attempt to ensure the best genetic offspring, for example, fighting off the advances of smaller males. Males often keep their mates in custody in the den, or take them along if they need to drink, lest they engage in infidelity. Males can produce up to 16 offspring over their lifetime, while females average four mating seasons and 12 offspring. Theoretically this means that a devil population can double on an annual basis and make the species insulated against high mortality.Owen and Pemberton, p. 66. The pregnancy rate is high; 80% of two-year-old females were observed with newborns in their pouches during the mating season. More recent studies of breeding place the mating season between February and June, as opposed to between February and March. Gestation lasts 21 days, and devils give birth to 20–30 young standing up, each weighing approximately .

Embryonic diapause Embryonic diapause (from late 19th century English: dia- ‘through’ + pause- 'delay') (aka delayed implantation in mammals) is an evolutionary reproductive strategy used by several animal species across a number of kingdoms, including approximate ...

does not occur. At birth, the front limb has well-developed digits with claws; unlike many marsupials, the claws of baby devils are not

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

. As with most other marsupials, the forelimb is longer () than the rear limb (), the eyes are spots, and the body is pink. There are no external ears or openings. Unusually, the sex can be determined at birth, with an external scrotum present. Tasmanian devil young are variously called "pups", "joeys", or "imps". When the young are born, competition is fierce as they move from the vagina in a sticky flow of mucus to the pouch. Once inside the pouch, they each remain attached to a nipple for the next 100 days. The female Tasmanian devil's pouch, like that of the

, opens to the rear, so it is physically difficult for the female to interact with young inside the pouch. Despite the large litter at birth, the female has only four nipples, so there are never more than four babies nursing in the pouch, and the older a female devil gets, the smaller her litters will become. Once the young have made contact with the nipple, it expands, resulting in the oversized nipple being firmly clamped inside the newborn and ensuring that the newborn does not fall out of the pouch. On average, more females survive than males, and up to 60% of young do not survive to maturity.Owen and Pemberton, p. 69. Milk replacements are often used for devils that have been bred in captivity, for orphaned devils or young who are born to diseased mothers. Little is known about the composition of the devil's milk compared to other marsupials. Inside the pouch, the nourished young develop quickly. In the second week, the

rhinarium The rhinarium (New Latin, "belonging to the nose"; plural: rhinaria) is the furless skin surface surrounding the external openings of the nostrils in many mammals. Commonly it is referred to as the tip of the ''snout'', and breeders of cats and ...

becomes distinctive and heavily pigmented. At 15 days, the external parts of the ear are visible, although these are attached to the head and do not open out until the devil is around 10 weeks old. The ear begins blackening after around 40 days, when it is less than long, and by the time the ear becomes erect, it is between . Eyelids are apparent at 16 days, whiskers at 17 days, and the lips at 20 days. The devils can make squeaking noises after eight weeks, and after around 10–11 weeks, the lips can open. Despite the formation of eyelids, they do not open for three months, although eyelashes form at around 50 days. The young—up to this point they are pink—start to grow fur at 49 days and have a full coat by 90 days. The fur growing process starts at the snout and proceeds back through the body, although the tail attains fur before the rump, which is the last part of the body to become covered. Just before the start of the furring process, the colour of the bare devil's skin will darken and become black or dark grey in the tail. Young tasmanian devils

The devils have a complete set of facial

vibrissae Vibrissae (; singular: vibrissa; ), more generally called Whiskers, are a type of stiff, functional hair used by mammals to sense their environment. These hairs are finely specialised for this purpose, whereas other types of hair are coarser ...

and ulnar carpels, although it is devoid of anconeal vibrissae. During the third week, the mystacials and ulnarcarpals are the first to form. Subsequently, the infraorbital, interramal, supraorbital and submental vibrissae form. The last four typically occur between the 26th and 39th day. Their eyes open shortly after their fur coat develops—between 87 and 93 days—and their mouths can relax their hold of the nipple at 100 days. They leave the pouch 105 days after birth, appearing as small copies of the parent and weighing around . Zoologist Eric Guiler recorded its size at this time as follows: a crown-snout length of , tail length of , pes length , manus , shank , forearm and

crown-rump length Crown-rump length (CRL) is the measurement of the length of human embryos and fetuses from the top of the head (crown) to the bottom of the buttocks (rump). It is typically determined from ultrasound imagery and can be used to estimate gestation ...

is . During this period, the devils lengthen at a roughly linear rate. After being ejected, the devils stay outside the pouch, but they remain in the den for around another three months, first venturing outside the den between October and December before becoming independent in January. During this transitional phase out of the pouch, the young devils are relatively safe from predation as they are generally accompanied. When the mother is hunting they can stay inside a shelter or come along, often riding on their mother's back. During this time they continue to drink their mother's milk. Female devils are occupied with raising their young for all but approximately six weeks of the year. The milk contains a higher amount of iron than the milk of placental mammals. In Guiler's 1970 study, no females died while rearing their offspring in the pouch. After leaving the pouch, the devils grow by around a month until they are six months old. While most pups will survive to be weaned, Guiler reported that up to three fifths of devils do not reach maturity. As juveniles are more crepuscular than adults, their appearance in the open during summer gives the impression to humans of a population boom. A study into the success of translocated devils that were orphaned and raised in captivity found that young devils who had consistently engaged with new experiences while they were in captivity survived better than young who had not.

Conservation status

Didelphis cynocephala and Didelphis ursina, 1808

The cause of the devil's disappearance from the mainland is unclear, but their decline seems to coincide with an abrupt change in climate and the expansion across the mainland of

indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

s and dingoes. However, whether it was direct hunting by people, competition with dingoes, changes brought about by the increasing human population, who by 3000 years ago were using all habitat types across the continent, or a combination of all three, is unknown; devils had coexisted with dingoes on the mainland for around 3000 years. Brown has also proposed that the

El Niño-Southern Oscillation EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American p ...

(ENSO) grew stronger during the Holocene, and that the devil, as a scavenger with a short life span, was highly sensitive to this. In dingo-free Tasmania,Owen and Pemberton, p. 40. carnivorous marsupials were still active when Europeans arrived. The extermination of the

after the arrival of the Europeans is well known, but the Tasmanian devil was threatened as well. Habitat disruption can expose dens where mothers raise their young. This increases mortality, as the mother leaves the disturbed den with her pups clinging to her back, making them more vulnerable. Cancer in general is a common cause of death in devils. In 2008, high levels of potentially

carcinogenic A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive subs ...

flame retardant chemicals were found in Tasmanian devils. Preliminary results of tests ordered by the Tasmanian government on chemicals found in fat tissue from 16 devils have revealed high levels of hexabromobiphenyl (BB153) and "reasonably high" levels of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE209). The Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal is the official fundraising entity for the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. The priority is to ensure the survival of the Tasmanian devil in the wild.

Population declines

At least two major population declines, possibly due to disease epidemics, have occurred in recorded history: in 1909 and 1950. The devil was also reported as scarce in the 1850s. It is difficult to estimate the size of the devil population. In the mid-1990s, the population was estimated at 130,000–150,000 animals, but this is likely to have been an overestimate. The Tasmanian devil's population has been calculated in 2008 by Tasmania's

Department of Primary Industries and Water The Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) is the government department of the Tasmanian Government responsible for supporting primary industry development, the protection of Tasmania's natural environment, effective lan ...

as being in the range of 10,000 to 100,000 individuals, with 20,000 to 50,000 mature individuals being likely. Experts estimate that the devil has suffered a more than 80% decline in its population since the mid-1990s and that only around 10,000–15,000 remain in the wild as of 2008. The species was listed as vulnerable under the Tasmanian ''

Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 The ''Threatened Species Protection Act 1995'' (TSP Act), is an act of the Parliament of Tasmania that provides the statute relating to conservation of flora and fauna. Its long title is An Act to provide for the protection and management of t ...

'' in 2005 and the Australian ''

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cult ...

'' in 2006, which means that it is at risk of extinction in the "medium term". The IUCN classified the Tasmanian devil in the lower risk/least concern category in 1996, but in 2009 they reclassified it as endangered. Appropriate wildlife refuges such as

Savage River National Park Savage River National Park is located in north-west Tasmania, Australia. Established in April 1999, it is the largest undisturbed area of temperate rainforest in Australia since the era of the thylacine. Unlike other national parks of Tasmania ...

in North West Tasmania provide hope for their survival.

Culling

The first European Tasmanian settlers ate Tasmanian devil, which they described as tasting like veal. As it was believed devils would hunt and kill livestock, possibly due to strong imagery of packs of devils eating weak sheep, a bounty scheme to remove the devil from rural properties was introduced as early as 1830.Owen and Pemberton, p. 9. However, Guiler's research contended that the real cause of livestock losses was poor land management policies and feral dogs. In areas where the devil is now absent, poultry has continued to be killed by

s. In earlier times, hunting possums and wallabies for fur was a big business—more than 900,000 animals were hunted in 1923—and this resulted in a continuation of bounty hunting of devils as they were thought to be a major threat to the fur industry, even though quolls were more adept at hunting the animals in question. Over the next 100 years, trapping and poisoning brought them to the brink of extinction. After the death of the last thylacine in 1936, the Tasmanian devil was protected by law in June 1941 and the population slowly recovered. In the 1950s, with reports of increasing numbers, some permits to capture devils were granted after complaints of livestock damage. In 1966, poisoning permits were issued although attempts to have the animal unprotected failed.Owen and Pemberton, p. 99. During this time environmentalists also became more outspoken, particularly as scientific studies provided new data suggesting the threat of devils to livestock had been vastly exaggerated. Numbers may have peaked in the early 1970s after a population boom; in 1975 they were reported to be lower, possibly due to overpopulation and consequent lack of food.Owen and Pemberton, pp. 118–119. Another report of overpopulation and livestock damage was reported in 1987. The following year, ''

Trichinella spiralis ''Trichinella spiralis'' is a viviparous nematode parasite, occurring in rodents, pigs, bears, hyenas and humans, and is responsible for the disease trichinosis. It is sometimes referred to as the "pork worm" due to it being typically encount ...

'', a parasite which kills animals and can infect humans, was found in devils and minor panic broke out before scientists assured the public that 30% of devils had it but that they could not transmit it to other species. Control permits were ended in the 1990s, but illegal killing continues to a limited extent, albeit "locally intense". This is not considered a substantial problem for the survival of the devil. Approximately 10,000 devils were killed per year in the mid-1990s. A selective culling program has taken place to remove individuals affected with DFTD, and has been shown to not slow the rate of disease progression or reduced the number of animals dying. A model has been tested to find out whether culling devils infected with DFTD would assist in the survival of the species, and it has found that culling would not be a suitable strategy to employ.

Road mortality

Motor vehicles are a threat to localised populations of non-abundant Tasmanian mammals, and a 2010 study showed that devils were particularly vulnerable. A study of nine species, mostly marsupials of a similar size, showed that devils were more difficult for drivers to detect and avoid. At high beam, devils had the lowest detection distance, 40% closer than the median. This requires a 20% reduction in speed for a motorist to avoid the devil. For low beam, the devils had the second shortest detection distance, 16% below the median. For avoidance of roadkill to be feasible, motorists would have to drive at around half the current speed limit in rural areas. A study in the 1990s on a localised population of devils in a national park in Tasmania recorded a halving of the population after a hitherto gravel access road was upgraded, surfaced with bitumen and widened. At the same time, there was a large increase in deaths caused by vehicles along the new road; there had been none in the preceding six months. The vast majority of deaths occurred in the sealed portion of the road, believed to be due to an increase in speeds. It was also conjectured that the animals were harder to see against the dark bitumen instead of the light gravel. The devil and quoll are especially vulnerable as they often try to retrieve roadkill for food and travel along the road. To alleviate the problem, traffic slowing measures, man-made pathways that offer alternative routes for devils, education campaigns, and the installation of light reflectors to indicate oncoming vehicles have been implemented. They are credited with decreases in roadkill. Devils have often been victims of roadkill when they are retrieving other roadkill. Work by scientist Menna Jones and a group of conservation volunteers to remove dead animals from the road resulted in a significant reduction in devil traffic deaths. It was estimated that 3,392 devils, or between 3.8 and 5.7% of the population, were being killed annually by vehicles in 2001–04. In 2009, the Save the Tasmanian Devil group launched the "Roadkill Project", which allowed members of the public to report sightings of devils which had been killed on the road. On 25 September 2015, 20 immunised devils were microchipped and released in Narawntapu National Park. By 5 October 4 had been hit by cars, prompting Samantha Fox, leader of Save the Tasmanian Devil, to describe roadkill as being the biggest threat to the Tasmanian devil after DFTD. A series of solar-powered alarms have been trialled that make noises and flash lights when cars are approaching, warning the animals. The trial ran for 18 months and the trial area had two-thirds less deaths than the control.

Devil facial tumour disease

First seen in 1996 in Mount William in northeastern Tasmania,

(DFTD) has ravaged Tasmania's wild devils, and estimates of the impact range from 20% to as much as an 80% decline in the devil population, with over 65% of the state affected. The state's west coast area and far north-west are the only places where devils are tumour free. Individual devils die within months of infection. The disease is an example of

transmissible cancer A transmissible cancer is a cancer cell or cluster of cancer cells that can be transferred between individuals without the involvement of an infectious agent, such as an oncovirus. Transmission of cancer between humans is rare. The evolution of tra ...

, which means that it is contagious and passed from one animal to another. This tumour is able to pass between hosts without inducing a response from the host's immune system. Dominant devils who engage in more biting behaviour are more exposed to the disease. Wild Tasmanian devil populations are being monitored to track the spread of the disease and to identify changes in disease prevalence. Field monitoring involves trapping devils within a defined area to check for the presence of the disease and determine the number of affected animals. The same area is visited repeatedly to characterise the spread of the disease over time. So far, it has been established that the short-term effects of the disease in an area can be severe. Long-term monitoring at replicated sites will be essential to assess whether these effects remain, or whether populations can recover. Field workers are also testing the effectiveness of disease suppression by trapping and removing diseased devils. It is hoped that the removal of diseased devils from wild populations should decrease disease prevalence and allow more devils to survive beyond their juvenile years and breed. In March 2017, scientists at the University of Tasmania presented an apparent first report of having successfully treated Tasmanian devils with the disease, by injecting live cancer cells into the infected devils to stimulate their immune system to recognise and fight the disease.

Relationship with humans

At Lake Nitchie in western

in 1970, a male human skeleton wearing a necklace of 178 teeth from 49 different devils was found. The skeleton is estimated to be 7000 years old, and the necklace is believed to be much older than the skeleton. Archaeologist

Josephine Flood Josephine Mary Flood, (née Scarr, born 25 July 1936) is an English-born Australian archaeologist, mountaineer, and author. Early life and education Josephine Flood was born Josephine Scarr in Yorkshire, England. She took a BA in Classics ...

believes the devil was hunted for its teeth and that this contributed to its extinction on mainland Australia. Owen and Pemberton note that few such necklaces have been found. Middens that contain devil bones are rare—two notable examples are

Devil's Lair Devil's Lair is a single-chamber cave with a floor area of around that formed in a Quaternary dune limestone of the Leeuwin–Naturaliste Ridge, from the modern coastline of Western Australia. The stratigraphic sequence in the cave floor de ...

in the south-western part of Western Australia and

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...

in Victoria.Owen and Pemberton, p. 41. In Tasmania, local Indigenous Australians and devils sheltered in the same caves. Tasmanian Aboriginal names for the devil recorded by Europeans include "tarrabah", "poirinnah", and "par-loo-mer-rer". Variations also exist, such as "Taraba" and "purinina". It is a common belief that devils will eat humans. While they are known to eat dead bodies, there are prevalent myths that they eat living humans who wander into the bush. Despite outdated beliefs and exaggerations regarding their disposition, many, although not all, devils will remain still when in the presence of a human; some will also shake nervously. They can bite and scratch out of fear when held by a human, but a firm grip will cause them to remain still. Although they can be tamed, they are asocial, and are not considered appropriate as pets; they have an unpleasant odour, and neither demonstrate nor respond to affection.Owen and Pemberton, p. 113. Until recently, the devil was not studied much by academics and naturalists. At the start of the 20th century, Hobart zoo operator Mary Roberts, who was not a trained scientist, was credited for changing people's attitudes and encouraging scientific interest in native animals (such as the devil) that were seen as fearsome and abhorrent, and the human perception of the animal changed. Theodore Thomson Flynn was the first professor of biology in Tasmania, and carried out some research during the period around World War I. In the mid-1960s, Professor Guiler assembled a team of researchers and started a decade of systematic fieldwork on the devil. This is seen as the start of modern scientific study of it. However, the devil was still negatively depicted, including in tourism material. The first doctorate awarded for research into the devil came in 1991.Owen and Pemberton, p. 4.

In captivity

Sarcophilus harrisii -Healesville Sanctuary-8a

Early attempts to breed Tasmanian devils in captivity had limited success. Mary Roberts bred a pair at Beaumaris Zoo (which she named Billy and Truganini) in 1913. However, although advised to remove Billy, Roberts found Truganini too distressed by his absence, and returned him. The first litter was presumed eaten by Billy, but a second litter in 1914 survived, after Billy was removed. Roberts wrote an article on keeping and breeding the devils for the London Zoological Society.Owen and Pemberton, pp. 84–93. Even by 1934, successful breeding of the devil was rare. In a study on the growth of young devils in captivity, some developmental stages were very different from those reported by Guiler. The pinnae were free on day 36, and eyes opened later, on days 115–121. In general, females tend to retain more stress after being taken into captivity than males. A plan to create "insurance populations" of disease-free devils has been ongoing since 2005. As of June 2012, the insurance population has reached a combined total of 500 animals and representing over 98% of the genetic diversity of this species. Most of these devils are living in Australian zoos and wildlife reserves. Beginning in November 2012 however, in an effort to create a population that is both wild and disease-free, Tasmanian devils have been relocated to

Maria Island Maria Island or 'wukaluwikiwayna' in alawa kani) is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea">island.html" ;"title="alawa kani) is a mountainous island">alawa kani) is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea, off the east coast of ...

, a mountainous island off the east coast of Tasmania. The Maria Island population has grown from a starting population of twenty-eight to 90, and experts will soon begin transferring healthy devils back to the mainland population. A study on the survival rates of the Maria Island population found that in contrast to other carnivores raised in captivity, the Tasmanian devils were not adversely affected by being born in captivity when released on Maria Island. Tasmanian devils were displayed in various zoos around the world from the 1850s onwards.Owen and Pemberton, p. 132. In the 1950s several animals were given to European zoos. In October 2005 the Tasmanian government sent four devils, two male and two female, to the

Copenhagen Zoo Copenhagen Zoo ( da, København Zoo) is a zoological garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1859, it is one of the oldest zoos in Europe and is a member of EAZA. It comprises and is located in the municipality of Frederiksberg, sandwiched betw ...

, following the birth of the first son of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and his Tasmanian-born wife

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

. Due to restrictions on their export by the Australian government, at the time these were the only devils known to be living outside Australia. In June 2013, due to the successes of the insurance population program, it was planned to send devils to other zoos around the world in a pilot program.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is a not-for-profit organization headquartered in San Diego that operates the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Founded in 1916 as the Zoological Society of San Diego under the leadership of Harry M. ...

and Albuquerque Biopark were selected to participate in the program, and

Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo is a zoo in the green belt of Wellington, New Zealand. History Wellington Zoo was opened in 1906 by the late Prime Minister Richard Seddon after he was given a young lion – later named King Dick – by the Bostock and Wombwe ...

and

Auckland Zoo Auckland Zoo is a zoological garden in Auckland, New Zealand, situated next to Western Springs Park not far from Auckland's central business district. It is run by the Auckland Council with the Zoological Society of Auckland as a supporting ...

soon followed. In the United States, four additional zoos have since been selected as part of the Australian government's Save the Tasmanian Devil program, the zoos selected were: the

, the

Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California. The city of Los Angeles owns the entire zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. Animal care, grounds maintenance, construction, ed ...

, the

Saint Louis Zoo The Saint Louis Zoo, officially known as the Saint Louis Zoological Park, is a zoo in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. It is recognized as a leading zoo in animal management, research, conservation, and education. The zoo is accredited by the ...

, and the

Toledo Zoo The Toledo Zoo & Aquarium, located in Toledo, Ohio, is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), through the year 2022. The Toledo Zoo & Aquarium houses over ...

. Captive devils are usually forced to stay awake during the day to cater to visitors, rather than following their natural nocturnal style.Owen and Pemberton, p. 133. There have been reports and suspicions of illegal trading in the past. In 1997, a devil turned up in Western Australia; it had not escaped from any licensed keeper. During the 1990s there were internet sites in the US that were advertising devil sales, and rumours that some

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

personnel had tried to buy them illegally during a visit to Tasmania.

In popular culture

The devil is an iconic animal within Australia, and particularly associated with Tasmania. The animal is used as the emblem of the

Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service is the government body responsible for protected areas of Tasmania on public land, such as national parks, historic sites and regional reserves. Historically it has also had responsibility for managing wildl ...

, and the former Tasmanian Australian rules football team which played in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

was known as the

Devils A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in many and various cultures and religious traditions. Devil or Devils may also refer to: * Satan * Devil in Christianity * Demon * Folk devil Art, entertainment, and media Film an ...

. The

Hobart Devils The Hobart Devils are a defunct professional basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). Based in Hobart, Tasmania, the team was the only representative from the state of Tasmania for the majority of its ten ...

were once part of the National Basketball League. The devil has appeared on several

commemorative coins Commemorative coins are coins issued to commemorate some particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. Many coins of this category serve as collectors items only, although some countries ...

in Australia over the years.

Cascade Brewery Cascade Brewery is a brewery established in 1824 in South Hobart, Tasmania and is the oldest continually operating brewery in Australia. As well as beer, the site also produces a range of non-alcoholic products. It is home to a function cen ...

in Tasmania sells a

ginger beer Traditional ginger beer is a sweetened and carbonated, usually non-alcoholic beverage. Historically it was produced by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar. Current ginger beers are often manufactured rather than ...

with a Tasmanian devil on the label. In 2015, the Tasmanian devil was chosen as Tasmania's state emblem. Tasmanian devils are popular with tourists, and the director of the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park has described their possible extinction as "a really significant blow for Australian and Tasmanian tourism". There has also been a multimillion-dollar proposal to build a giant 19 m-high, 35 m-long devil in Launceston in northern Tasmania as a tourist attraction. Devils began to be used as

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide fund ...

in the 1970s, when studies showed that the animals were often the only things known about Tasmania overseas, and suggested that they should therefore be the centrepiece of marketing efforts, resulting in some devils being taken on promotional tours. The Tasmanian devil is probably best known internationally as the inspiration for the ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon character the Tasmanian Devil, or "Taz" in 1954. Little known at the time, the loud hyperactive cartoon character has little in common with the real life animal. After a few shorts between 1957 and 1964, the character was retired until the 1990s, when he gained his own show, ''

Taz-Mania ''Taz-Mania'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Warner Bros. Animation from 1991 to 1995, broadcast in the United States on Fox Kids. The show follows the adventures of the ''Looney Tunes'' character Taz ( the Tasmanian Devil) in the ...

'', and again became popular. In 1997, a newspaper report noted that

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

had "trademarked the character and registered the name Tasmanian Devil", and that this trademark "was policed", including an eight-year legal case to allow a Tasmanian company to call a fishing lure "Tasmanian Devil". Debate followed, and a delegation from the Tasmanian government met with Warner Bros.

Ray Groom Raymond John Groom (born 3 September 1944) is an Australian lawyer and former sportsman and politician, representing the Liberal Party in the Federal Parliament 1975–84 and the Tasmanian Parliament 1986–2001. He was a Federal and state mi ...

, the Tourism Minister, later announced that a "verbal agreement" had been reached. An annual fee would be paid to Warner Bros. in return for the Government of Tasmania being able to use the image of Taz for "marketing purposes". This agreement later disappeared. In 2006, Warner Bros. permitted the Government of Tasmania to sell stuffed toys of Taz with profits funnelled into research on DFTD.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

Parks and Wildlife Tasmania – Tasmanian Devil
– vocalisation, movie, FAQ
Save the Tasmanian Devil
– Tasmanian government conservation program *View th
Tasmanian devil genome
in

Ensembl Ensembl genome database project is a scientific project at the European Bioinformatics Institute, which provides a centralized resource for geneticists, molecular biologists and other researchers studying the genomes of our own species and other v ...

*
The Aussie Devil Ark Conservation Project
{{Authority control Mammals described in 1841 Dasyuromorphs Mammals of Tasmania Mammals of New South Wales Marsupials of Australia Scavengers Vulnerable fauna of Australia Species endangered by disease Species endangered by collisions with vehicles