Re:Tasmanian Devils Developing Resistance to Transmissible C...
by TheSpiceIsLife on Wednesday August 31, 2016 @02:37PM
(#12400441)
This is great news, these little creatures are adorable, until you watch them feeding, then it sounds like you've entered hell's anteroom.
I live in Tasmania, there's a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary about an hour drive from my house. Something that struck when when listing the the fellow there give his talk was that "300,000 animals die every year on Tasmanian roads" and I thought and they just keep coming! there must be a lot of animals on this little island. So I looked up some numbers and was surprised to discover there are about 25 million kangaroos in Australia, more kangaroos than there are people! I've seen kangaroos taller than I am (and I'm 6 foot) with rippling biceps bigger than mine - it's quite a sight, but never seen a Tasmanian Devil in the wild.
Back to the Devils. They only live about 5 years in the wild, and if you go to the Devil sanctuary enough you'll see they move a bunch of Devils in to a seperate enclosure they call the 'Geriatric Ward' as they live a bit longer in captivity and show visible signs of ageing (mostly hair loss and greying).
I always tell people we should domesticate them, I think they'd make hilarious pets, they've got quite a character, and it'd quickly move them away from being endangered.
I live in Tasmania, there's a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary about an hour drive from my house. Something that struck when when listing the the fellow there give his talk was that "300,000 animals die every year on Tasmanian roads" and I thought and they just keep coming! there must be a lot of animals on this little island. So I looked up some numbers and was surprised to discover there are about 25 million kangaroos in Australia, more kangaroos than there are people! I've seen kangaroos taller than I am (and I'm 6 foot) with rippling biceps bigger than mine - it's quite a sight, but never seen a Tasmanian Devil in the wild.
Back to the Devils. They only live about 5 years in the wild, and if you go to the Devil sanctuary enough you'll see they move a bunch of Devils in to a seperate enclosure they call the 'Geriatric Ward' as they live a bit longer in captivity and show visible signs of ageing (mostly hair loss and greying).
I always tell people we should domesticate them, I think they'd make hilarious pets, they've got quite a character, and it'd quickly move them away from being endangered.