Tasmanian Devil

The screams

Tasmanian devils were named by European settlers for the unsettling nighttime sounds — spine-chilling shrieks, growls, and coughs produced when multiple devils gather at a carcass to feed. The noise, combined with glowing red ears (blood rushes to ear cartilage when stressed) and gaping jaws, so alarmed early colonists that they named the animal accordingly.

The bite

The devil’s bite is extraordinary relative to body size — bite force quotient measurements rank it among the strongest of any living mammal. They can consume 40% of their body weight in a single meal and eat every part of a carcass, including bone, fur, and teeth. This is ecologically valuable: the complete consumption of carcasses limits disease spread.

Devil Facial Tumour Disease

Since the 1990s, Tasmanian devil populations have collapsed by 80% due to Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) — a rare transmissible cancer spread by biting. The tumour grows around the face and mouth, preventing feeding; most affected animals die within months. DFTD is one of only a small number of known transmissible cancers in nature.

Conservation responses include:

• Insurance populations in predator-free mainland sanctuaries
• Selective breeding for genetic resistance
• Trial vaccines using killed tumour cells

In 2020, 26 Tasmanian devils were reintroduced to Barrington Tops, NSW — the first time the species lived on the mainland in approximately 3,000 years.

Extinct from the mainland

Devils went extinct from mainland Australia around 3,000 years ago, possibly from competition with the dingo (which never reached Tasmania). Before European contact, they were also widespread on mainland Australia.