Tasmanian Devils

[Terrier]

I am lucky enough to be involved on a voluntary basis in the "Save the Devil" Program. This 100% volunteer funded project has been put together to maintain a genetically diverse captive breeding program due to the prevalence of "Devil Facial Tumour Disease". Without going to much into it, it is the only known form of contagious cancer, is usually fatal and is confined to Tas Devils. The people I work with currently have two females and are programmed to get a (hopefully fertile) male in the next week or so.

This is Chime and Miranda, despite their fearsome reputation and immensely powerful jaws the girls are mainly shy and nocturnal.

They can also be a bit nosy at times, Miranda regularly climbs to the highest point of her enclosure and watches the world go by.

They really are amazing little creatures, but the noises they make when feeding can only be described as the stuff nightmares are made of, it is of little wonder, the early settlers, seeing fleeting shadows in the bush and hearing these guttural and often ear piercing growls and screams, named them "Devils".

Cheers all.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Definitely a subject rarely seen by me on this forum. Thank you for sharing them.

 

[Terrier]

The weather the last few days has been rather cold and wet, today wasn't much different but with longer sunny breaks between showers. This seemed to give Miranda a new burst of energy, she was tearing from pen to pen, up and down the mounds, pausing to peer at me over the fence for about an hour. Maybe someone has let on to her that a 'boy' Devil will be coming to stay in about two weeks time.

 

[smoke665]

I've had several "run ins" with bobcats, on the trails after dark,. Their screams are bad enough, don't think I'd like to meet one of these. Thanks for sharing, interesting creatures.

 

[jcdeboever]

Cool pics.

 

[tirediron]

Neat! How big are they?

 

[Terrier]

About the size of a Corgi dog, the girls weigh in at about 8 kilos, the male 12. But they have a bite force 4x that of a dog.

 

[tirediron]

About the size of a Corgi dog, the girls weigh in at about 8 kilos, the male 12. But they have a bite force 4x that of a dog.

Huh.. didn't realize they were that large.

 

[Terrier]

We very seldom have to pick one up (only to put them in travel boxes for vet checks) but it is done very carefully. There is only one "safe" way of doing so (although I wouldn't try it with a 100% wild Devil) for both Devil and handler, that is maintain a firm grasp at the base of the tail and then support under the front legs with a forearm, keeping fingers well clear of the jaws, and whatever happens do not loosen the tail grip or they tend to go "ballistic" and start thrashing about a bit..

Note they have five 'fingers' on the front paws and only have 4 toes on the rears.

 

[smoke665]

We very seldom have to pick one up (only to put them in travel boxes for vet checks) but it is done very carefully. There is only one "safe" way of doing so (

Bite Force = 4x stronger then a dog. Think I'll relate "safe" to leave them alone!!!!

 

[snowbear]

We very seldom have to pick one up (only to put them in travel boxes for vet checks) but it is done very carefully. There is only one "safe" way of doing so (

Bite Force = 4x stronger then a dog. Think I'll relate "safe" to leave them alone!!!!

Agreed. But they are cute buggers.

 

[baturn]

Thanks for the photos and info. Very interesting . Good luck with your project.

 

[benhasajeep]

So, that's why Taz on Looney Toons sounded that way.

It's really good of you to volunteer your time to help them.

 

[Terrier]

Just an update and to introduce you to "Lucky" our 'new' male Devil, he is rather loud and vocal, a bit brash, loves his tucker and quite willing to stand his ground when you are in the pen with him and rather handsome in a rugged sort of a way.

 

[zombiesniper]

Awww. Ain't they the cutest scare your nickers off little buggers you've ever seen?