Wildlife | Finding Tasmania

Last weekend we were invited to go up to northern Tasmania with some friends who are researching the Tasmanian Devil. We’d seen the devil in a wildlife conservation center, but not in the wild–the devils are nocturnal animals and generally hard to spot. It was an incredible opportunity to see the devil up close and better understand this endangered little creature: the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial.

Our friends have a field site in Narawntapu National Park, which is on the northern coast of Tassie, about two and a half hours from Hobart. They have other field sites around Tasmania, especially in areas that are in the ‘ecotone’–the areas between dense forest and open pasture or forest plantations (ironically). In these areas, the devil populations are actually quite dense. But, the problem is that the devil is suffering from a communicable cancer that is spread through bites. Devils bite each other as part of their normal behavior, especially during mating. We saw some animals with some serious wounds. Unfortunately, this is how the cancer spreads–known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease. It causes rapidly growing tumors, especially in the mouth area. These tumors grow at an incredible rate, and end up making it impossible for the devils to eat, eventually killing them. The disease is so fast-spreading, and causes mortality within such a short time-span, that it has led to listing of the devil as an endangered species since the disease was discovered in 1996.

Rodrigo Hamede did his PhD research on the epidemiology and ecology of the devil tumor disease and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at UTAS. His wife Sarah Peck is a vet with the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. What a team! They were nice enough to invite us out with them on the trip to the Narawntapu field site (well, it helps that Rodrigo is Chilean!). They were accompanied by Cecilia Carrea, an Argentine PhD in Biology who was volunteering for the project (and her husband Eric Oliver from Labrador, Canada, post-doc at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, and more importantly a homebrew expert).

The goal of their research is to better understand the disease, how it progresses, and how the devil is adapting. There are some isolated devil populations in Tassie that are NOT infected with the disease, but most are. To prevent total extinction, there are also many devils in captivity to protect the species. But, Rodrigo and Sarah are researching the diseased populations to help advance understanding of the species and the disease.

They set out traps (don’t worry, they are very friendly traps–the devils usually just fall asleep in them after chowing down on lamb) and check them daily for devils. If they find a devil, they take extensive samples. They also put in microchips to track the progress of the disease, and weigh and measure the devils to determine their overall health, take blood samples, tumor samples, and other stuff (sorry, I’m not a scientist!). Then, they’re let go and off they scamper off into the bush!

The devils are incredibly mellow and well-behaved, despite their devilish reputation! The ones we saw were mostly calm while being held by Rodrigo (he is very experienced though and makes it look quite easy). The younger ones are generally healthy, while the older ones almost always have tumors. The tumors themselves are pretty disturbing. They LOOK painful. Apparently though the tumors themselves are not painful to the devils, but rather cause harm by impeding the ability of the devils to eat and sustain themselves (correct me if I’m wrong!).

One of the interesting adaptations that they’ve found is that the devils are reproducing at a much younger age. Now, females with less than one year are reproducing–a significant change in behavior. It’s a rapid adaptation given the relatively short history of the disease, and the devils in these cancerous populations are feeling the pressure to reproduce earlier and earlier to mitigate the extreme mortality once infected. While it’s not necessarily a positive sign, it does give some hope that the species may potentially adapt to the disease to prevent total extinction in the wild. I’m no expert, but this was my take on it.

If you want to learn more, you can check out the Save the Tasmanian Devil website.

One of the traps had a spotted quoll. This is another crazy Tassie animal! There’s some good information on spotted quolls here.

Narwantapu was just beautiful, and we highly recommend a visit! Especially early in the morning, when the fog rolls in off the ocean (camanchaca in Chilean) and creates a magical setting among the rolling hills and cockatoo-laden trees. Pretty cool. It was a great weekend to be a Tasmanian. [photo credits to Andres!]