Thursday, October 11, 2012

Tasmanian Devils: What you never knew

We all know very well the spinning doom of a character from Loony Tunes:


However, real Tasmanian devils look just a little bit different:


These animals are native to a small island off the coast of Australia called, you guessed it, Tasmania. There kind of like a cross between cats and small bears. They were originally named "devils" because of the unearthly sound that they make during the night. Tasmanian devils are marsupials and can give birth to between 20 and 30 young. However, only handful of those 20-30 offspring survive given that the mother's pouch contains only four nipples. They are nocturnal and also tend to be rather cantankerous and bad tempered. So, the worst aspects of a cat and a bear. Tasmanian devils are also mainly scavengers. They go for carrion rather than killing their own food. Unfortunately, devils also have very similar biology from one to another. They don't have a lot of genetic diversity. Most devils look pretty much just like the one shown above. This is part of the reason for their current problem.


I apologize for the discomfort that these images may have caused but it has become a serious issue. In the eighteen hundreds, Tasmanian devils were initially placed on the endangered species list. This was because farmers were blaming them for livestock (chickens, ducks, goats, etc.) gone missing and killing them off to rectify the situation. They almost succeeded in exterminating them, but it was eventually proved that the devils weren't responsible given their status as scavengers. The devils were then given a chance to repopulate and were doing a fair job of it right up until about the mid-1990s. That is thought to be when the first case of the above condition first appeared. What you see above is a unique type of cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD). This cancer is unique because is passed from devil to devil by their greeting method, which tends to employ a rather violent bite, generally on the face, thus implanting live cancer cells from an infected devil's saliva to the other devil. Because Tasmanian devil biology is so similar from one to another, the devils' bodies don't recognize the cancer cells as foreign and they are therefore, not fought off but embraced. Then the cancer takes hold. This cancer shows up a few months after infection and causes tumors on the faces of Tasmanian devils that, as they progress, can spread to other parts of the body and enlarge to such an extent that it becomes virtually impossible for them to feed and the infected devils end up dying from starvation, dehydration, or complications resulting from the other tumors. This cancer has spread rapidly throughout the devil population and it is estimated that about 70% of the overall devil population has been wiped out in the last 10 years.  Efforts are being made to prevent the extinction of Tasmanian devils. Here's what is currently being done:
  • Working on breeding unaffected population of Tasmanian Devils in captivity. This is one of the more immediate avenues that are being taken to prevent the total extinction of this species. While this work is being done, researchers are also working on something else:

  • Working to find a cure for this disease. It is an ongoing investigation to prevent the extinction of an entire species due to cancer. It has recently been discovered that the tumors all share the same genetic structure which is actually not that of its host. This cancer originated in one devil and has been passed from one to another by their traditional method of greeting: a bite on the face. Now, DFTD doesn't just have implications for Tasmanian devils, but also for humanity. It is possible that cancer in humans could evolve to the same extent that DFTD and other forms of animal cancer have. It is conceivable that one day humans may pass cancer through contact. Here, I will refer you to a very interesting video that I found from TED talks. Here is the web address:


I recently attended Convocation on Critical Issues at Missouri Western State University. The speaker was a man named T. Boone Pickens. While he didn't directly speak of the Tasmanian devil issue, he spoke a lot about various energy sources and the way those sources are allocated in our country. The energy he talked about was what powers our world. However, I propose we employ a different yet same energy to solve the problems facing Tasmanian devils. It is my fond hope that our nation can assist in finding the solution by reallocating some of our resources, both in natural energy and in the mental energy of our many schools and universities.

Tasmanian devils are an endangered species. It was humans who first put them on that list and then worked to get them removed from it in later years. They are once more threatened with extinction, can we not work towards their recovery again and finally get them removed from a list that they've been on for so long?

Sources:
Jessie Jane
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