About the Tasmanian Devil?
The Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus harrisi, is the largest of the living marsupial carnivores: the only larger marsupial carnivore to have survived into recent times was the Thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus.
The Devil has a short muzzle, a broad head, prominent ears and a muscular neck. Its limbs are short with the forelegs longer than the hind legs. Overall, it somewhat resembles a small black dog with funny pink ears and short, stocky build. But beware! The Devil's bite is deadly powerful: it evolved to scavenge carcasses and it is able to crunch up bones and all, leaving nothing behind.
While principally a scavenger, the Tasmanian Devil is also an opportunistic predator. When chance allows it will kill and eat a variety of live prey, ranging in size from large invertebrates up to mammals the size of a small wallaby. It is nocturnal and crepuscular.
Although it is relatively short of limb the Devil can cover large distances in a single night thanks to its steady loping, albeit somewhat awkward gait. It will patrol beaches for beach cast carrion and roads for traffic killed carcasses. In Tasmania many Devils themselves fall victim to the modern world's "top predator", namely the motor car.
Habits and Distribution
While they are solitary in habit, Devils' home ranges of up to 20km2 usually overlap extensively. When Devils gather and compete for a carcass, aggression is spectacular and involves variety of blood curdling screeches, growls and ritualised displays of fangs. If ritualised threats are not sufficient to intimidate a competitor, physical combat inevitably follows. This aspect of their behaviour may yet lead to the Devils' downfall in Tasmania because of the devastating and horrible Facial Tumour Disease that is transmitted through wounds inflicted in fights.
The Devil is widespread and common in Tasmania but is absent from Bass Strait Islands and, today, from the mainland. It prefers dry sclerophyll forest and coastal woodland with patches of open grassland. However, it is not averse to life in the urban fringes of towns. The Devil is a competent tree climber, even though it is mainly a ground dwelling animal.
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Mainland Tasmanian Devils : Extinction?
The Tasmanian Devil figured among the megafauna of Pleistocene times. In those days the "Devil" was 15% to 50% larger than its modern counterpart. While the Pleistocene "Devil" is assigned the Lation binomial Sarcophilus laniarius, there were no morphological features other than significantly larger size that distinguished it from its present day diminutive successor who survives now only on the island of Tasmania and on the mainland up until very late Holocene times (Ride 1964, Dawson 1982). A case has been made (Werdelin 1987) that the living Tasmanian Devil is a subspecies of the the Pleistocene S. laniarius (S. laniarius harrisi). 'Tasmanian' Devils figure in the prehistoric rock art of northern Australia.
The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)
has likewise been regarded as a dwarfed form of a Pleistocene giant. However, recent work (Price 2008) refutes this theory. This is important because other modern animals are supposed to be dwarfed descendants of the Megafauna of Pleistocene Sahul. If this is not so then it is important because it will change our perceptions of what happened to the lost Megafauna.
Why did the Devil go extinct on the mainland?
- Where Light Meets Dark's Hypothesis
- Death of the Mega-Fauna 1.0
- References and Further Reading
Tasmanian Devils Still Alive in Mainland Australia?
Are Mainland Tasmanian Devils a potential reality? Or do they belong more in the realm of UFOs, Harold Holt sightings and Yowie encounters?
Over the last few years I have heard numerous credible reports of sightings. But, of course, mere anecdotes don't count for anything as hard evidence.
Then I heard of actual specimens: road kills that were collected here in Victoria and deposited with the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne. I visited the Museum, I spoke with the Curator who very graciously showed me the specimens.
Well damn! They do exist!
I held them in my hands, I photographed them and and I noted the details from the specimen tags. Incredible!
There are said to be five specimens at the Museum. On Monday 9/7/2007, I examined and photographed two of them.
Here they are: Tasmanian Devils collected from the wild right here in Victoria: one was captured alive, one was roadkilled. The other specimens are said to have deteriorated after their refrigerator was accidentally left switched off. For legal reasons, it is the Museum's policy not to make potentially hazardous or infectious material available for inspection by untrained members of the general public.
Well yep, I s'pose that's me.
Most of the specimens in question are road kills and they were all discovered in the mountains of central Victoria. The exception is an animal that was captured alive and found its way into the custody of the Arthur Rylah Institute. The time frame covers the entire 20th century: the earliest specimen dates from 1903, the most recent one dates from the 1990s.
Click on the image right here for more info.
On the basis of this physical evidence, are we now obliged to accept a wild population of Tasmanian Devils living right here in mainland Victoria as an established fact?
Unfortunately, the answer at the moment must be, provisionally, No.
Don't worry, the author is suitably scientifically sceptical. We have the means to do this thing so let's do it. I know conventional wisdom says No. But many a discovery has been missed thru blinkered pig-headedness. I say let's go have a look ... just in case. The Devils in Tasmania are in dire trouble. If there's the slightest chance of finding a population that's immune to the horrible DFT disease that's decimating them, we should try. We owe them that chance.
Anyway, it's not like we'll be throwing darts at a board in the dark. There are clues along the way and we have the help of modern technology. We won't be camped out like Moses in the wilderness either. Our good and trusty electronic servants will do most of the work for us out there through rain, hail and shine.
Read more?
Click on the image.
In Search of the Mainland Devil: the Technology
Over the past 3 years, The Quest for Thylacoleo developed automatic cameras whose purpose is to photograph and identify uncommon and cryptic native animals. Beginning with the cumbersome and now obsolete "tube camera" for both still photography and video, they have now progressed to the more compact, portable and easily concealable "Scout" series.
The task of robotic animal photography must be thought out carefully. Quest cameras are designed and fabricated using CAD methods. They employ embedded control processors and miniature sensors to detect passing animals.
The cameras must mimic many of the decisions an actual human photographer - or hunter - must make while stalking his quarry. Thus a certain amount of decision making capability, of artificial intelligence, is built into the design.
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A crucial consideration in the design is that these instruments must be relatively cheap to build. If they're reasonably cheap then they are expendable. Well, to some extent anyway. Expensive instruments are ones you can't afford to lose. There are many situations "out there" where the risk of loss is quite high. You can not really afford to risk an expensive instrument and IMHO this limits the utility of "up market" designs.
The instruments must be able to keep functioning for months at a time. Searching for endangered and rare native animals is not something one can do 24/7: one has a life to lead. Therefore one sets one's electronic emissaries to the task. Wild animals' senses are sharp and traces of human presence alarms many of them. For best results these instruments must be allowed to work autonomously "out there", alone and unattended. One simply leaves them and, weeks or months later, one returns and retrieves them.
The great outdoors is an environment that is implacably hostile to delicate electronics. Extreme heat can cause circuitry to fail. So can severe cold that causes dew to condense inside the instrument or even cause the battery's electrolyte to freeze. The unit shown here suffered through snow and storm and tempest. When we retrieved it, the viewport and sensor were almost completely encrusted with mud. Yet it was still functioning. The design of these instruments, while straightforward in theory, is a challenging task in practice.
Mainland Tasmanian Devils: Field Trips?
Have YOU seen a Tasmanian Devil on the Mainland?
Tell The Quest!
If you have seen a Tassie Devil on the Australian mainland, or if indeed you have personally seen any unusual looking animal, we would very much like to hear from you!
Please fill out our report form that you can go to simply by clicking on the image.
Who's involved in the Mainland Devil Project?
A project such as this can not be undertaken alone. Fortunately Thylacoleo has many friends who bring many different talents to the quest.
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