The Devil Facial Tumour Disease" they suffer from is one of the few non-viral transmittable cancers. According to Wikipedia affected populations after wiped out in just 12-18 months.
It is transmitted by biting, but also any contact with cancer cells (such as sharing food), so the most active/fittest are hit first.
Long term a totally separate population is the only way they will be able to keep the Devils from extinction.
There is a theory that some (now) parasites were actually transmittable cancers before, which then developed multi-cellularity that allowed them to have the distinct cell types that they needed to be an own lifeform. Developing multi-cellularity in eurkaryotes has been reported a few dozen times if I remember correctly. Crazy stuff, if true.
I don't believe there's any known human ones, but there's a dog one that is 11,000 years old (Canine Transmissible Veneral Tumour) and there's a clam one.
I don’t think there are any known examples of cancer transmission (as opposed to transmission of viruses that cause cancer) in humans; leukemias have shown to be transmissible in mice in the lab.
> Long term a totally separate population is the only way they will be able to keep the Devils from extinction.
Are you sure?
From your Wikipedia link:
> Despite this, devil populations persist in disease-stricken areas.[69] The devils have, in a way, fought back the extinction by developing the gene that is immune to face tumors.
The good news is that it seems unlikely to hop species barriers, or survive long in the absence of Tasmanian Devils. Presumably they’ll be able to reintroduce healthy ones after the cancer wipes them out in a given region.
If left to continue to evolve in the wild, I would think that eventually this cancer would eventually be easily classified as its own species... if it can’t be so classified already.
They aren’t dying of anything human introduced... they bite each other’s faces off and it turns into cancer. They really are a fairly horrible creature... like an angry vicious hamster.
I fail to see how this is relevant. Yes, Tasmanian Devil's are dying of "natural causes". But, humans like them and want them to continue living. So, humans will preserve them if possible. Now, natural selection is selecting for creatures that humans like as well as creatures that don't bite each others's faces off. Natural selection does not pick morally good creatures to survive. Natural selection is merely the fact that creatures that live long enough to have babies, live long enough to have babies.
I moved to Tasmania to work remotely a few months ago.
I'm yet to see a devil, although I have seen other animals. They did exist on the mainland thousands of years ago but were wiped out by Dingoes. It's assumed these were introduced by Australian Aboriginal people who brought them here from South East Asia.
Tasmania is dingo free, which is why there are still devil's here
I follow https://twitter.com/davidghamilton1 on Twitter who is a Tasmanian Devil researcher and constantly posts fantastic photographs of them (and Quolls and other excellent Australian wildlife).
> Thanks to their sharp teeth devils can slice the meat and crush bones pretty easily. Tasmanian devils have the most powerful bite of any mammal given the size of its body. They can open their jaws 75 – 80 degrees.
> Tasmanian devils have 42 teeth but these are not replaced after birth. They continue to grow all throughout the devil’s life and the growth is gradual. Dogs do replace their teeth.
> They can exert a force of 553 N (56.4 kgf). Thanks to its large head and big jaw-opening, Tasmanian devils can tear apart any meat including the hardest of the bones.
Having lived in a place that had Devils, and having seen them first hand, I'd be so upset if they went extinct. They're such a cute and incredibly iconic animal for us, and the fact they were practically wiped out by a pest animal introduced here for sport-hunting is infuriating and depressing.
Readit News
It is transmitted by biting, but also any contact with cancer cells (such as sharing food), so the most active/fittest are hit first.
Long term a totally separate population is the only way they will be able to keep the Devils from extinction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-papil...
I don’t think there are any known examples of cancer transmission (as opposed to transmission of viruses that cause cancer) in humans; leukemias have shown to be transmissible in mice in the lab.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hpv-infection...
Are you sure?
From your Wikipedia link:
> Despite this, devil populations persist in disease-stricken areas.[69] The devils have, in a way, fought back the extinction by developing the gene that is immune to face tumors.
> ... the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects ...
> ... the Descolada is intrinsically tied in with the life cycles of all Lusitanian organisms and may even be sentient itself.
They aren’t dying of anything human introduced... they bite each other’s faces off and it turns into cancer. They really are a fairly horrible creature... like an angry vicious hamster.
I fail to see how this is relevant. Yes, Tasmanian Devil's are dying of "natural causes". But, humans like them and want them to continue living. So, humans will preserve them if possible. Now, natural selection is selecting for creatures that humans like as well as creatures that don't bite each others's faces off. Natural selection does not pick morally good creatures to survive. Natural selection is merely the fact that creatures that live long enough to have babies, live long enough to have babies.
I'm yet to see a devil, although I have seen other animals. They did exist on the mainland thousands of years ago but were wiped out by Dingoes. It's assumed these were introduced by Australian Aboriginal people who brought them here from South East Asia.
Tasmania is dingo free, which is why there are still devil's here
You're unlikely to see a Devil in the wild, shy little creatures.
Definitely check out one or all of the wildlife sanctuaries, Trowunna, Bonorong, Devils at Cradle, and others.
I'm in Launceston and operate a laser cutter, if you ever want anythinh metal laser cut hit me up, contact details in my profile.
Dead Comment
Here's a recent picture of their teeth: https://twitter.com/davidghamilton1/status/13927908758691266...
> Tasmanian devils have 42 teeth but these are not replaced after birth. They continue to grow all throughout the devil’s life and the growth is gradual. Dogs do replace their teeth.
> They can exert a force of 553 N (56.4 kgf). Thanks to its large head and big jaw-opening, Tasmanian devils can tear apart any meat including the hardest of the bones.
https://tasmaniandevil.net/tasmanian-devil-teeth/
the video in this link has more tidbits and is cute as hell.