Tuesday 16 February 2010

Save the Tasmanian Devil?

[Guest Post by Jeff Perren]

Almost certainly NZers know more about this than I do. Still, I thought the story was worthwhile mentioning. According to this Los Angeles Times report, Tasmanian Devils have been having a pretty rough time of it the past decade.

The facial cancers that are devastating populations of Tasmanian devils in Australia are a nerve tumor that escaped its original host and became a parasite of the cultural icon, passing from one devil to the next by bites when the animals are fighting or mating, researchers reported Thursday.

Ouch.
So, flash poll: Are they as cool as they seem to me, or are they really a bane down under? (Or, up top, if you insist I avoid 'geo'-chauvinism.)

Based on the photo, I'd go with "worth saving" (solely by private donations, of course).

3 comments:

Jeffrey Perren said...

Not that I'd mind PC getting the credit, but the post was actually made by me, Jeff Perren of Shaving Leviathan.

Sorry for leaving that out of the text.

RobH said...

I worked for many years in the bush of the west coast of Tasmania. You are very aware of the devils though you rarely see them. At night they snarl and fight amongst themselves and will steal (and eat) your boots if you leave them out. The other service they provide is the swift clean up of road kill. In fact once we chanced upon a devil turd that had intermingled amongst it shreds of the gold coloured foil from a Benson & Hedges cigarette packet - they will eat just about anything.
It would be a shame to lose these humorous little beasts

Jackie said...

Totally worth saving!