According to the wildlife refuge I went to a couple of weeks ago, massive numbers of Tasmanian devils are dying due to a disease known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD). This disease causes Tasmanian devils to produce massive tumors all over their faces and makes it nearly impossible for them to eat, so they end up starving to death.
But this isn’t the first time that one of Tasmania’s icons has disappeared. Before the devil, Tasmania’s main icon was the Tasmanian tiger (see picture below). Because of hunting, however, this tiger went extinct in the 1930s with the last one dying in captivity at the old Hobart zoo.
Scientists believe that this disease, DFTD, affecting Tasmanian devils may be a type of cancer, but they are not sure because it can be passed through physical contact. And if that is not scary enough, the fatality rate for DFTD in devils is 100% with most devils dying in about 6 months after contraction.
Conservationists and scientists are worried that this disease may cause devils to go completely extinct in the next 5 years because DFTD is just too easy to contract and the entire population of devils is vulnerable to it.
There is major research going on right now to find a cure for this disease, but no breakthroughs have been made. All we can do is hope that this amazing (but very mean) little creature won’t go extinct, and Tasmania again won’t lose one of its main icons…
Don't be fooled by that cute face... They're actually really mean! But I still don't want them to go extinct!
GRRR...RAWR
Thylacine - the Tasmanian Tiger
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