Tasmanian devil

Tasmanian devils eat meat.

They hunt small animals, and they also eat animals that have already died. This helps keep the bush clean.

Tasmanian devils are carnivores. They hunt, but they are mainly scavengers, which means they eat animals that are already dead. Favorite foods include wallabies, possums and wombats, along with small mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs and insects. Devils have even been found with sea squirts in their stomachs.

Their jaws and teeth are so powerful that they can eat a whole meal, including bones and fur. By cleaning up dead sheep and cattle on farms, devils remove food that blowfly maggots would use, which helps protect living sheep.

Devils are mainly scavengers but also effective predators, feeding opportunistically on whatever is available. The NRE lists wallabies, possums and wombats as favorites, plus small mammals and birds taken as carrion or prey, and reptiles, amphibians, insects and even sea squirts found in stomach contents.

Powerful jaws and teeth let devils consume carcasses completely, bones and fur included. In farming areas they feed on sheep and cattle carcasses, which the NRE notes can reduce the risk of blowfly strike by removing food for maggots. Feeding at a large carcass is often communal and noisy.

Devils are busy at night.

They walk a long way to find food. They make lots of loud noises, but they are often just scared.

Tasmanian devils are nocturnal: they rest in a den or thick bush by day and come out after dark. A devil may walk up to 16 kilometers in a night along well-worn trails, searching for food. Devils do not defend territories, but each has a home range.

Devils are famous for their noises: coughs, snarls and high-pitched screeches. Their wide-open yawn, called a gape, looks scary, but it usually means the devil is afraid or unsure. When many devils share a big meal, much of the noise and showing off is bluff that helps them avoid real fights.

Devils are nocturnal, hiding by day in dens or dense bush and roaming up to 16 kilometers along well-defined trails at night. They are not territorial but have home ranges, which can be very large when food is scarce.

Their vocal repertoire includes harsh coughs, snarls and high-pitched screeches, and a sharp sneeze serves as a challenge to other devils. The NRE explains that the famous gape is performed more from fear and uncertainty than aggression, and that much of the noisy display at shared carcasses is ritual bluff that minimizes harmful fighting. Young devils spend a lot of time in boisterous play.

Many Tasmanian devils have become sick.

Scientists and keepers are working hard to help them. They check on wild devils and look after healthy devils, too.

The Tasmanian devil is endangered. Since 1996, many devils have caught a serious illness called devil facial tumor disease, a kind of cancer that can pass from one devil to another, probably through bites.

People are working hard to help. The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program checks wild devils every year, keeps a healthy insurance population, and has released devils to strengthen wild groups. A 2021 study forecast that the decline should level off within about ten years.

Devils were trapped and poisoned for more than a century after European settlement, until legal protection in 1941 allowed recovery. In 1996 devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) was recorded: a fatal, transmissible cancer, believed to pass between devils through biting. The IUCN listed the species as Endangered in 2008, as did Tasmanian (2008) and Commonwealth (2009) law.

Cunningham and colleagues (2021) estimated a peak of about 53,000 devils in 1996; by 2020 DFTD occupied more than 90 percent of the range, local densities had fallen 82 percent, and the population was about 16,900, with the decline forecast to level off within a decade. The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program monitors eight sites yearly and maintains an insurance population; 33 genetically diverse devils released at Wukalina/Mount William in 2017 increased genetic diversity there.