Tasmanian devil

Appearance

The fur is usually black, often with irregular white patches on the chest and rump (although approximately 16% of wild devils do not have white patches). It is characterised by its stocky and muscular build, black fur, pungent odour, extremely loud screech, keen sense of smell, and ferocity when feeding. The newborn are pink, lack fur, have indistinct facial features, and weigh around 0.20 g (0.0071 oz) at birth.

It has a squat, thick build, with a large head and a tail that is about half its body length. Males are usually larger than females, having an average head and body length of 652 mm (25.7 in), a 258 mm (10.2 in) tail and an average weight of 8 kg (18 lb).

Range and habitat

The Tasmanian devil was formerly present across mainland Australia, but became extinct there 3,500 years ago, co-incident with the extinction of the thylacine from the region. Devils are found in all habitats on the island of Tasmania, among them the outskirts of urban areas, and are distributed throughout the Tasmanian mainland and on Robbins Island (that is connected to mainland Tasmania at low tide). The north-western population is located west of the Forth River and as far south as Macquarie Heads.

It was formerly present across mainland Australia, but became extinct there around 3,500 years ago. It is now confined to the island of Tasmania. Even so, whether it was direct hunting by people, competition with dingoes, changes brought about by the increasing human population, who by 3000 years ago were using all habitat types across the continent, or a combination of all three, is unknown. Devils had coexisted with dingoes on the mainland for around 3000 years.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Breeding

It is a nocturnal and crepuscular hunter, spending the days in dense bush or in a hole. It has been speculated that nocturnalism may have been adopted to avoid predation by eagles and humans.

Young devils can climb trees, but this becomes more difficult as they grow larger. Devils that are yet to reach maturity can climb shrubs to a height of 4 m (13 ft), and can climb a tree to 7 m (23 ft) if it is not vertical. Females start to breed when they reach sexual maturity, typically in their second year.

In crisis

Since the late 1990s, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) has drastically reduced the population and now threatens the survival of the species, that in 2008 was declared to be endangered. At least two major population declines, possibly due to disease epidemics, have occurred in recorded history: in 1909 and 1950. In the mid-1990s, the population was estimated at 130,000–150,000 animals, but this is likely to have been an overestimate.

The Tasmanian devil's population has been calculated in 2008 by Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries and Water as being in the range of 10,000 to 100,000 individuals, with 20,000 to 50,000 mature individuals being likely. Experts estimate that the devil has suffered a more than 80% decline in its population since the mid-1990s and that only around 10,000–15,000 remain in the wild as of 2008.

Tasmanian devil is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Tasmanian devil, Wikidata item Q134964. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.