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Good Looking Devils in Tasmania
When Most People think of the Tasmanian devil the first thing that comes to mind is the Whirlwind Brown Tas from Warner Brothers.
If they have heard of this Carnivorous Marsupial it may only be from the unfortunate facial Tumour Disease that is decreasing its numbers.
Tasmanian Devils, Sarcophilius Harrisii, is the largest living Carnivorous Marsupial. Once widespread on the mainland of Australia it is now found only in Tasmania, and even here their numbers are dwindling. Devils have soft, fine, black fur. Often they have white markings found around the head, neck and rump with Males weighing up to 10kg (females about 6kg); Devils have large broad heads and the strongest jaw pressure for an animal it’s size; they can open their mouths to an 90 degree angle!
Their powerful teeth and jaws allow them to eat the entire animal including fur & bone. They are mostly scavengers, and often prey on the road kill and any other carrion they may find, they will eat as much as they can at each feeding, up to a third of their body weight.
The Tasmanian devil is also famous for it’s vocalizations. It begins with a small sneeze-like sound, and then moves on to a rumbling in the throat before a squeal most like a pig’s emerges. It is a very unique sound, and hard to describe until you can experience it for yourself.
Danger & Delilah are 2 Devils that have grown up at Natureworld, and are part of the parks awesome collection of Devils on display. These sisters, Danger & Delilah have added to the devil family there by sharing their MUM experience with everyone that comes to the park; Danger carried 2 joeys and Delilah had 4, the maximum for a Devil, Devils are pregnant for 3 weeks, they then give birth to up to 30 joeys, all about the size of a grain of rice, then the race begins.
The first 4 to make it to the nipples and latch on are the ones that will continue on, this ensures that the strongest survives from the beginning. The Survivors spend the next 15 weeks in the pouch, and are completely weaned at about 40 weeks. . The Devil Joeys are now out of mums pouch and oh so cute. They play fight and run around their enclosures to the delight of the crowd of visitors. They are always very active during the park’s feed times starting at 10am and 4pm, daily.
Tasmanian wildlife parks are highly successful at breeding Tasmanian Devils; after all it’s their home. East Coast Natureworld is no exception and again had a 100% success rate this year. The park has 13 Adult Devils on display, and 6 joeys. These Devils are all Disease-free and are a joy to watch run around.
East Coast Natureworld is also home to the Devil Island Project. Where Bruce and Maureen Englefield have donated the use of 28 acres of land to the Tasmanian government in order to establish a wild population of disease free devils.
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Bicheno
- Bicheno is a popular resort and busy commercial fishing port 195km NE of Hobart. It was a sealing and whaling town in the early 19th century, and later a centre servicing a nearby coal mine. Today, the main industries are shellfish culture, crayfishing and tourism.
