Tasman Peninsula: The Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park

After the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger in the the 1930s, the Tasmanian devil became the largest living carnivorous marsupial in the world. Now the Tasmanian devil is also in trouble. Since the mid-nineties, the wild devil population has been decimated by an aggressive parasitic cancer which is transmitted between individuals when feeding. Tasmanian devils are primarily scavengers, and when they locate a meal squabbling and biting usually ensues. This often leads to cuts to their faces and since the devil population is so closely related genetically, this aggressive cancer is able to be quickly spread from one individual to another, making it, in essence, a contagious cancer. Once an individual becomes infected, it can easily transmit the cancer to other devils until the tumours become so large that they hinder the devil's ability to eat and it eventually starves to death.

During the year and a half we stayed in Tasmania we only saw one Tasmanian devil in the wild, and never heard their haunting screams in the night (which Josh remembers hearing frequently while visiting Tasmania as a child). Animal reserves and zoos around the country are busy developing breeding programs in an attempt to preserve some genetic diversity in case the wild populations becomes completely eradicated.








A mother teaches her young how to fight for their meal.

Apparently the Tasmanian Devil has the strongest jaw strength of any living mammal (over 5,100 psi (35,000 kPa)).








Spotted quolls are another carnivorous marsupial, but unlike the Tasmanian devil, the quoll hunts for its meals, and is considered an apex predator.

The forester kangaroo is Tasmania's only kangaroo (other Tasmanian Macropods [not shown] are the Bennets wallaby, the pademelon, the bettong, and the potoroo). In the 1950s-1960s the forester kangaroo was reduced to 15% of their previous numbers. Though typically smaller than their mainland relatives, they are the largest marsupial in Tasmania (and the second largest in the world after the red kangaroo).






Not ready to grow up.




Cape Barren Goose



Galah


Green Rosella

This short-billed corella is not native to Tasmania, and was formerly a pet. She has been taught to collect coins from the visitors.





and then return them afterwards.

The nocturnal Tawny Frogmouth.

A one-winged Peregrine Falcon who, before his unfortunate encounter with a power line, could attain speeds upwards of 322 km/hr, making him a member of the fastest species in the animal kingdom.

Hawk

December 2010, Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania, Australia