Tasmaanse duivel door regering Tasmanië op lijst bedreigde diersoorten geplaatst

Tasmanian Devil Placed on Endangered List

by State Government

10-05-2008 By Michael Heath, Bloomberg


May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Tasmanian Devil will be listed as an endangered species in Australia's southern island state, the government said, as the population of the world's biggest marsupial carnivore is decimated by a fast-spreading head tumor.

The cancer, which grows over the animal's face and prevents it from eating, is contagious and spread from devil to devil by biting, according to researchers. The black-haired Australian animal will be upgraded from vulnerable to endangered in two days, a spokeswoman for Tasmania's Primary Industries Minister David Llewellyn said by telephone from Hobart today.

"The change in the devil's status reflects the real possibility that this iconic species could face extinction in the wild within 20 years,'' Llewellyn said in a statement. The starvation deaths resulted in sightings of the animal falling by 64 percent over the past decade, researchers say.
The devil, the inspiration for "Taz'' in Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.'s Looney Tunes cartoons, gained its name from early European settlers because of its "spine-chilling screeches and demonic growls,'' according to Save the Tasmanian Devil, a research project of the government and University of Tasmania.

Estimates of the number of Tasmanian Devils living in the wild vary because they are difficult to track. They may have fallen from as many as 150,000 in the mid-1990s to 20,000-50,000 at the end of 2006, according to the state government.

Devil Facial Tumor Disease is one of only three recorded cancers that can spread like a contagious disease, researchers say. The live tumor cells aren't rejected by the animal's immune system because of a lack of genetic diversity among devils.
The government has also backed a plan to build an "insurance population'' of healthy Tasmanian Devils at wildlife reserves, zoos and other protected areas.

"If required, these animals could be utilized to help re-establish Tasmanian Devil numbers in the wild,'' Llewellyn said in a statement yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net.

(Bron: http://www.bloomberg.com/)
(Bron foto Tasmaanse duivel: http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/index.html / Bron foto Taz: archief Kraaijer))