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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing Tasmanian devils. These animals get their common name from their devil-like calls. For most of their lives, Tasmanian devils live in solitude, however, they will gather in groups while eating and they can get quite chatty while at a carcass. They’ll shriek and growl and nip and bite at each other in order to show dominance and determine a hierarchy of who can eat when. This can actually be a problem for them.

Aside from the wounds they may cause each other in these disputes, this contact with one another makes them susceptible to a transmissible cancer that has caused the Tasmanian devil population to plummet 80% in the past few decades. At this point, these animals are listed as Endangered, and one of their biggest threats is this cancer. Called Devil Facial Tumor Disease, it causes just that, facial tumors, and it kills within six months of onset. Other threats to Tasmanian devils include poaching and habitat loss. Currently, they are only found wildly on the island of Tasmania, hence the second part of their common name.

It’s believed that Tasmanian devils once inhabited the Australian mainland, but may have been pushed out by pressures from people as well as the dingo. Originally they may have been preyed on by Tasmanian wolves, otherwise known as the thylacine, though it’s also suggested Tasmanian devils ate thylacine babies if given the opportunity.

Tasmanian devils are opportunistic eaters and will readily scavenge for food before hunting. Most of their meals consist of carrion discovered throughout the forests and shrublands they inhabit, however, Tasmanian devils will also hunt small animals like rabbits, snakes, and insects as well as larger animals like wombats and wallabies. They leave nothing behind but a skull and full colon after eating because they’re able to eat fur and bones. They have dry, dusty, hairy poop for this reason! If times get tough, they’ll store fat in their tails which helps them get by without meals.

After the thylacine, who is classified as extinct, Tasmania devils are the largest living marsupial animals that subsist almost entirely on a carnivorous diet. They average the size of a large cat, though males can be nearly twice the size of females. Their strong stature and tough jaws make them formidable foes, though some predators to Tasmanian devils include wedge tailed eagles and quolls especially on smaller or younger devils.

Males fight over females and most breed in mid February to late March. The male leaves shortly after mating and the female has a gestation period of about three weeks. She’ll give birth to dozens of pea sized babies, but only four are able to survive as she has only four nipples from which they can suckle in her pouch. This is not unlike the opossum, another marsupial, we’ve discussed previously. The baby devils remain in their mother’s pouch for just under four months at which point they are kept in a den and remain here another four months, not leaving until up to the start of the breeding season the following year.

Tasmanian devils are often described as nocturnal spending their days hiding out in burrows and hollow logs, but they’ll happily lay out in the sun if they have a safe place away from human disturbances and prying predators to do so. They don’t begin breeding until approximately 2 years of age but on average they only live to be about 5 years old.

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