"Tasmanian Devils Endangered" Topic

I can never get those links to work.

The article I read had a quote from a scientist that said they were going to try to eradicate the fox, which was a natural enemy to the Tasmanian Devil.

"We Australians are great at making animals extinct, but only when we don't want to. :-)

JW

Well one what to get rid of the foxes is to arm the devils with knifes.

What you do is you take a big knife and then you tape it to it's back so it stick out mabye 5 inches from its head, that way they can just run into the fox and stab it.
That or teach them kung fu.

On the more serious side, it would be a shame if those uniqe animals were lost, they don't make good pets, but they are still wicked cool.

the main problem is that there is a virus that causes cancerous facial tumours and eventual death. They think the whole tasmanina population is in danger, and the only chance are small, currently virus free populations on offshore islands.

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Since the cancer is transmitted by contact, there are populations in zoos / wildlife parks that are quaranteened and safe. There is a lot more that can be done to rescue these animals. The situation is not apocalyptic yet -- not all of the island is infected.

Tassie devils have a history of population fluctuations. The population is on a downward swing. There was a mysterious die off at the start of last century. So maybe natural selection will overcome the cancer – though this looks doubtful.