Posted on 10/07/2020 1:44:17 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Tasmanian devils, the carnivorous marsupials whose feisty, frenzied eating habits won the animals cartoon fame, have returned to mainland Australia for the first time in some 3,000 years.
Gabriel said Aussie Ark aims for devils eventually to live in non-protected areas in mainland Australia, with the hope the devils will contribute to keeping cat and fox populations under control.
“There is an argument that by putting devils into a situation where you stop the other carnivores scavenging is that those animals, like cats and foxes, will simply start hunting. You could actually make a conservation problem where it didn’t exist before,”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
There is still some hope that a population of thylacine has survived. There have been a number of sightings over the years, some pretty credible, in Tasmania, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. In New Guinea, the New Guinea singing dog was thought to be extinct in the wild since the 1970s was rediscovered last year because of the reports of sighting by a remote tribe. That same tribe has reported seeing thylacine over the years. Sadly, the thylacine is probably extinct but there's always hope.
I knew I could depend on some FReeper to post a picture of the Tasmanian Devil.
Oh,my!
What big teeth your puppy has?
No when they fight, they bite each others and it was the bites that were causing the tumors. I read the article in full after my post.
I live in Australia and the contagious and fatal Devil mouth tumor issue is still a serious worry in Tasmania. It was my understanding that’s one of the main reasons for wanting to reintroduce healthy Devils on the mainland - to ensure that the species revives their numbers in a tumor-free, natural habitat. I don’t know why this point isn’t really conveyed in this article.
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