Love bites on the neck of the young female Tas­manian devil in my lap tell me she has recently had a sexual encounter. They also indicate something ominous: she might well be dead before she can raise her first litter of pups.

I (Jones) am sitting on the ground holding a devil that I trapped in Freycinet National Park on the eastern coast of Tasmania—a wild jewel of an island to the south of the mainland of Australia. It was here, in 2001, that I first witnessed a hideous disease that causes large, festering tumors on the face of these marsupials, impairing feeding and routinely killing them within six months of infection. Today the Freycinet population has almost disappeared—a reflection of what is happening across most of the animal’s range. First detected in 1996, up in the northeastern corner of the island, the cancer—now known to be contagious—has reduced devil populations across Tasmania by up to 95 percent, pushing the species, which lives only on this island, to the edge of extinction.

3 Comments

1. 1. FringeDivision 03:24 PM 5/23/11

   I have watched a program on the Animal Planet on just this subject, who it was first detected purely by accident, with a Photographer in needing pictures for his story on The Tasmanian Devils of Autrailia, snapped what turned out to be the very first pictures of a Tasmanian Devil with some inordenant growth on his face. Thinking this was an isolated event, he went back, set up some more camera traps and waited. Again, when he looks at the most recent taken pictures, they also have the same kind of growth on they faces, some a lot worse than others. He then refers this to Scientists in Autrailia, and they start researching, by capturing some of the Devils that have the growth. The Scientists worked on it for what was a long time before they indentified it as Cancer tumors. They then proceeded to try and find out how they got it, where did they get it from, and how was is it infecting the Devils, was it air bourne or something else. And, how many Devils were infected. They charted the infection from where it was first found, and then over years how it was traveling all across Autailia's outback. They found that in one area of Autrailia, those Devils were immune to catching the Cancer, so, they breed scores of immune Devils, and released them into the outback with hopes this can stop the Cancer from wiping out what was left of these poor creatures. I believe it was successful, at least for now. You might be able to find this story on the Animal Planet Website, or at least be able to purchase the show I'm talking about. Cause, they believe it's possible that this form of Cancer might be able to transfere from Animal to Human. Check it out!

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2. 2. scientific earthling 07:50 PM 5/23/11

   All we need is a cancer like this,
   culling gross excesses in the warm nigh air,
   less people, less cars, less houses,
   Oh! wouldn't it be loverley.

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3. 3. Phatgrower in reply to scientific earthling 08:12 PM 5/23/11

   I believe we have one already, free samples for whoever wants them.
   TheRealPhatgrower@youtube.com

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