The Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) is a carnivorous marsupial of the Dasyuridae family. It was originally from the Australian mainland and is now found in the wild only in the island state of Tasmania, including the Eastern Mary island-a small beach where there is a conservation project with disease-free animals.
The size of a small dog, the Tasmanian devil became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world after the extinction of thylacine in 1936. It is associated with quolls and remotely associated with thylacine. It is characterized by a burly and muscular form, black hair, stinging smell, very loud and disturbing screams, keen sense of smell, and ferocity at mealtime. The large head and neck of the devil allow it to produce the strongest bite per body mass of an existing mammal land predator, and it hunts its prey and scavenges carcasses and eats household products if humans live nearby.
Although usually solitary, sometimes eat with other demons and defecate in communal locations. Unlike most other dashurids, demons effectively and actively thermoregulate during the daytime without overheating. Despite having a rotting appearance, the devil is able to generate surprising speed and endurance, and can climb trees and swim across the river.
It is believed that ancient marsupials migrated from what is now South America to Australia tens of millions of years ago during the time of Gondwana, and that they evolved as Australia became more barren. Fossils of species similar to modern demons have been found, but it is not known whether they are ancestors of contemporary species, or whether the devil is currently living with this species. The date when Tasmanian devils became extinct locally from the Australian mainland is not clear; most evidence suggests that they have contracted three racial populations some 3,000 years ago. Teeth found in Augusta, Western Australia were 430 years ago, but archaeologist Oliver Brown denied this and considered the extinction of demonic land to have occurred about 3,000 years ago.
This disappearance is usually blamed on dingo, which is not present in Tasmania. Because they are seen as a threat to animals and animals hunted by humans for feathers in Tasmania, demons are hunted down and become endangered. In 1941, the demons, who were originally viewed as vicious demons, became officially protected. Since then, scientists have argued that previous concerns that Satan is the most significant threat to overweight and misplaced livestock.
Devils are not monogamous, and the reproduction process is very strong and competitive. Men fight each other for women, and then keep their spouses to prevent female affairs. Women can ovulate three times in weeks during the breeding season, and 80% of two-year-old females appear to be pregnant during the annual mating season. Women averaging four seasons proliferate in their lives and give birth to 20-30 young people after three weeks of pregnancy. Newborns are pink, lacking hair, have an obscure facial feature and weigh about 0.20 g (0.0071 oz) at birth. Since there are only four nipples in the pocket, the competition is fierce and few newborns survive. Young people grow quickly and are removed from the bag after about 100 days, weighing about 200 g (7.1 oz). Young people become independent after about nine months, so women spend most of their time in activities related to birth and maintenance.
Since the late 1990s, malignant facial tumor disease (DFTD) has drastically reduced demonic populations and is now threatening the survival of the species, which in 2008 was threatened. The program is currently being carried out by the Tasmanian Government to reduce the impact of the disease, including the initiative to build a group of healthy demons in captivity, isolated from the disease. While the thylacine still exists, it preys on demons, which target orphaned tiger children who have not been guarded in their nests. Satan's local populations have also been greatly reduced due to collisions with motor vehicles, especially when they eat roadkill.
Satan is an iconic symbol of Tasmania and many of the organizations, groups and products associated with the country use the animals in their logos. It is seen as an important tourist drawer to Tasmania and has been the world's attention through the character of 'Looney Tunes' under the same name. Starting in 2013, the Tasmanian devil is shipped to zoos around the world as part of the Australian Government's Save the Tasmanian Devil program.
Video Tasmanian devil
Taxonomy
Believing it to be a kind of opossum, naturalist George Harris wrote the first published description of the Tasmanian devil in 1807, named it Didelphis ursina, because of its characteristic like a bear like a round ear. He previously made presentations on topics at the Zoological Society of London. However, certain binomial names have been given to the common wombat (later reclassified as Vombatus ursinus ) by George Shaw in 1800, and are therefore unavailable. In 1838, a specimen was named Dasyurus laniarius by Richard Owen, but in 1877 he had submitted it to Sarcophilus . The modern Tasmanian devil is named Sarcophilus harrisii ("Harris meat lovers") by French naturalist Pierre Boitard in 1841.
The subsequent revision of the devil taxonomy, published in 1987, attempted to convert the species name into Sarcophilus laniarius based on the land fossil record of only a few animals. However, this is not widely accepted by the taxonomic community; the name S. harrisii has been maintained and S. laniarius is passed down to the fossil species. "Beelzebub's pup" was the earliest vernacular name given to him by the Tasmanian explorers, referring to a religious figure who is a prince of hell and an assistant to Satan; the explorers first encountered the animal by hearing its distant vocals at night. The related names used in the nineteenth century were Sarcophilus satanicus ("Satanic meatlover") and Diabolus ursinus ("devil bear"), all because of the initial misconception of the devil because of demon possession.
Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) belongs to the Dasyuridae family. The genus Sarcophilus contains two other species, known only from the Pleistocene fossils: S. laniarius and S. moomaensis . The relationship between the three species is unclear. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Tasmanian devils are closely related to quolls.
Australian marsupial roots are thought to trace back tens of millions of years to when much of the Southern Hemisphere is currently part of Gondwana's supercontinent; marsupials are believed to originate from what is now South America and migrate in Antarctica, which has a temperate climate at the time. When land degradation occurs, it is believed that marsupials adapt to basic Australian flora. According to Pemberton, the possibility of demon ancestors may need to climb trees to get food, leading to the growth of size and the jumping gait of many marsupials. He speculates that these adaptations may have led to a curious style of contemporary demonic motion. Specific Tasmanian devil-specific lineages have emerged during Miocene, a molecular evidence that shows a split from ancestral quolls between 10 and 15 million years ago, when severe climate change emerged in Australia, changing the climate from warm and humid to dry, dry ice age, resulting in mass extinctions. Because most of their prey died of cold, only a few surviving carnivores, including the ancestors of quolls and thylacines. It is speculated that the Satanic lineage may have appeared at this time to fill a niche within the ecosystem, as scavengers who throw away the carcasses left behind by selective Tasmanian tigers. The extinct Glaucodon ballaratensis from the Pliocene epoch has been dubbed a species between quoll and devil.
The fossil deposition of limestone caves in Naracoorte, South Australia, dating to the Miocene includes specimens of S. laniarius, which are about 15% larger and 50% heavier than modern demons. Older specimens believed to be 50-70,000 years old were found in Darling Downs in Queensland and in Western Australia. It is unclear whether the modern demons evolved from S. laniarius , or whether they coexisted at the time. Richard Owen argues for the last hypothesis of the 19th century, based on a fossil discovered in 1877 in New South Wales. Large bones associated with S. moornaensis have been found in New South Wales, and it has been suspected that these two large extinct species may have hunted and scavenged. It is known that there are several genera of the Tasmanian tiger millions of years ago, and that they range in size, the smaller ones depend more on feeding. Because the devil and the Tasmanian tiger are similar, the extinction of the present genus of thylacine has been referred to as an analog historical evidence for Satan. It has been speculated that the smaller sizes of S. laniarius and S. moornaensis allow them to adapt to changing conditions more effectively and last longer than appropriate thylacines. Because the extinctions of these two species occur at the same time as human settlements in Australia, human hunting and land clearing have been debated as a possible cause. Critics of this theory point out that since indigenous Australians only developed boomerang and spear to hunt about 10,000 years ago, a very significant decline in numbers because systematic hunting is impossible. They also show that the caves inhabited by Aborigines have a low proportion of bones and vicious stone paintings, and show that this is an indication that it is not a large part of the indigenous lifestyle. A scientific report in 1910 claimed that Aboriginal people preferred herbivorous meat rather than carnivores. Another major theory for extinction is that it is caused by the climate change brought by the latest ice age.
While the dingo is seen as the main reason for the devil's loss from the mainland, another theory is that increased terrain of land causes it, while populations in Tasmania are largely unaffected as the climate remains cold and humid. According to this theory, dingo is only a secondary cause.
Because the devil is the closest relative of the Thylacine, there is speculation that the Tasmanian tiger can be revived by combining DNA from a sample of thylacines museums with demon ovum.
Genetics
The Tasmanian devil's genome was sequenced in 2010 by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Like all dasyurids, the devil has 14 chromosomes. Satan has a low genetic diversity compared to other Australian marsupials and placental carnivores; this is consistent with the founder's effect as a range of allelic sizes that are low and almost continuous across the measured subpopulations. Allelic diversity was measured at 2.7-3.3 in the sample sub-population, and heterozygosity was in the range of 0.386-0.467. According to a study by Menna Jones, "gene flow appears to be widespread to 50 km (31 mi)", which means a high level of assignment for sources or near neighbor populations "in agreement with motion data On a larger scale (150-250 km 90-200 mi), the gene flow is reduced but there is no evidence for isolation by distance ". The island's effects may also contribute to its low genetic diversity. Low density periods may also have created moderate population congestion, reducing genetic diversity. Low genetic diversity is considered to have been a feature in the Tasmanian devil population since the middle of the Holocene. Outbreaks of demonic facial tumor disease (DFTD) lead to increased inbreeding. The devil sub-populations in the northwest of the country are genetically distinct from other demons, but there are some exchanges between the two groups.
Analysis of single strand polymorphism (OSCP) in the major class histocompatibility complex (MHC) domains taken from various locations in Tasmania showed 25 different species, and showed different MHC patterns in northwestern Tasmania to eastern Tasmania. Devils in the eastern part of the country have less MHC diversity; 30% are of the same type as tumors (type 1), and 24% are of type A. Seven of every ten demons in the east are type A, D, G or 1, associated with DFTD; whereas only 55% of western devils fall into this MHC category. Of the 25 types of MHC, 40% are exclusive to western demons. Although the northwestern population is genetically less diverse overall, it has a higher diversity of MHC genes, allowing them to install an immune response to DFTD. According to this study, mixing demons can increase the likelihood of disease. Of the fifteen different areas in Tasmania surveyed in this study, six are in the eastern part of the island. In the east, Epping Forest has only two different types, 75% are of type O. In the Buckland-Nugent region, only three types are present, and there are an average of 5.33 different species per location. In contrast, in the west, Cape Sorell produces three types, and Togari North-Christmas Hills produces six, but the other seven sites all have at least eight types of MHC, and West Pencil Pine has 15 species. There is an average of 10.11 MHC types per site in the west. Recent research has shown that wild demon populations are rapidly developing resistance to DFTD.
Maps Tasmanian devil
Description
The Tasmanian devil is the largest living carnivorous marsupial. It has a squat, thick shape, with a large head and a tail about half its length. Unusual for a marsupial, his front legs are slightly longer than his hind legs, and the devil can run up to 13 km/h (8.1 mph) for short distances. Feathers are usually black, often with irregular white patches on the chest and buttocks (though about 16% of wild devils do not have white patches). These signs indicate that the devil is most active at dawn and dusk, and they are thinking of drawing biting attacks toward the less important areas of the body, since the battle between demons often leads to scar concentration in the region. Men are usually larger than women, have an average head and body length of 652 mm (25.7 inches), 258 mm (10.2 in) tails and an average weight of 8 kg (18 pounds). Women have an average head and body length of 570 mm (22 inches), 244 mm (9.6 inches) tails and an average weight of 6 kg (13 pounds), although devils in western Tasmania tend to be smaller. Satan has five long toes on their front legs, four pointing forward and one coming out from the side, which gives the devil the ability to hold food. The hind legs have four toes, and the devil has a claw that can not be pulled. The stocky demon has a relatively low center of mass.
Satan fully grows at the age of two, and some demons live longer than five years in the wild. Probably the longest-lived Tasmanian demon recorded was Coolah, a male demon who lived in captivity for more than seven years. Born in January 1997 at the Cincinnati Zoo, Coolah died in May 2004 at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.
Satan stores body fat on his tail, and a healthy demon has a fat tail. The tail is largely non-retractable and important for its physiology, social behavior and locomosi. It acts as a counterweight to help stability when the demons move quickly. An ano-genital aroma gland at the base of its tail is used to mark the soil behind the animal with a strong and stinging aroma.
Males possess external testes in structures such as pockets formed by the lateral ventricrural folds of the stomach, which partially conceal and protect them. The subovoid-shaped testis and the mean dimensions of 30 adult male testes are 3.17 cm - 2.57 cm (1.25 inches 1.01 inches). The female sac opens backward, and is present throughout its life, unlike some other dashurid.
The Tasmanian devil has the strongest bite relative to the body size of any carnivorous living mammal, exerting a power of 553 N (56.4 kgf). The jaw can open up to 75-80 degrees, allowing the devil to produce large amounts of force to tear the flesh and destroy the bones - enough strength to allow biting through thick metal wire. The strength of the jaw is partly because of its relatively large head. The teeth and jaws of Tasmanian devil are similar to hyenas, examples of convergent evolution. Dasyurid teeth are similar to primitive marsupials. Like all dasyurids, demons have prominent canines and cheeks. It has three pairs of lower incisors and four pairs of upper incisors. It is located at the top of the front of the demon's mouth. Like a dog, it has 42 teeth; however, unlike dogs, their teeth are not replaced after birth but grow continuously throughout life at a slow rate. It has "very carnivorous teeth and trophic adaptations for bone consumption". The devil has long claws that allow him to dig burrows and find underground food easily and hold prey or spouse strongly. Teeth and claw strength allow the devil to attack wombats up to 30 kg (66 pounds). The large neck and body that gives the demon its strength also causes this force to be biased toward the front of the body; swaying, awkward, and tortuous demons are associated with this.
The devil has a long mustache on his face and in a blob on the top of his head. It helps the devil find his prey while feeding in the dark, and helps detect when another demon approaches while feeding. Mustache can extend from the tip of the chin to the back of the jaw and may cover the shoulders. Hearing is the dominant sense, and also has a very good sense of smell, which has a range of 1 kilometer (0.6 mi). The devil, unlike other marsupials, has a well-defined and saddle ectotympanic. Because demons hunt at night, their visions seem strongest in black and white. Under these conditions they can detect moving objects easily, but have trouble viewing objects that are silent.
Distribution and habitat
Satan is found in all habitats on the island of Tasmania, including the outskirts of urban areas, and is distributed throughout the mainland of Tasmania and on Robbins Island (which connects to Tasmanian land during low tide). The northwestern population is located west of the Forth River and as far south as the Head of Macquarie. Previously, they were present on Bruny Island from the 19th century, but there was no record of them after 1900, and they were introduced to Badger Island in the mid-1990s but are thought to have been extinguished in 2005. A study has modeled the reintroduction of the Tasmanian devil-free DFTD to the mainland in areas where dingo is rare. It is proposed that Satan will have less impact on livestock and native fauna than dingo, and that the mainland population may act as an additional insurance population. In September 2015, 20 immunized people, who were baptized, were released to Narawntapu National Park, Tasmania. Two later died of being hit by a car.
The "core habitat" of devils is thought to be in "low to moderate rainfall zones in east and northwest Tasmania". Tasmanian devils are especially like dry sclerofil forests and coastal forests. Although they are not found at the highest altitudes in Tasmania, and their population density is low in the grassland plains in the state's southwest, their populations are high in dry and mixed sclerophyll forest and coastal health. The devil prefers an open forest to a high forest, and a dry forest rather than wet. They are also found near the road where roadkill is prevalent, although the devil himself is often killed by a vehicle while picking up a carcass. According to the Endangered Species Scientific Committee, their versatility means modifying habitat from damage is not seen as a major threat to the species.
The devil is directly linked to Dasyurotaenia robusta, a tapeworm classified as Rare under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. This tapeworm is found only in demons.
Ecology and behavior
The Tasmanian Devil is a nocturnal and crepuscular hunter, spending the days in the thicket or in the bush. It has been speculated that nocturnalism may have been adopted to avoid predation by eagles and humans. Young devils are mostly crepuscular. There is no evidence of suspended animation.
The young devils can climb trees, but this becomes more difficult as they grow larger. Satan can scale trees more than 40 cm (16 inches) in diameter, which tend to have no small side branches to hang, to a height of about 2.5-3 m (8.2-9.8 ft). Satan that has not reached maturity can climb the bush to a height of 4 meters (13.1 feet), and can climb trees up to 7 m (23 ft) if not vertical. The adult devils may eat young devils if they are very hungry, so this climbing behavior can be an adaptation to allow the young demon to flee. Devils can also swim and have been observed crossing the river with a width of 50 meters (160 feet), including a cold water course, apparently with enthusiasm.
Tasmanian devils do not form packages, but spend most of their own time after weaning. Classically regarded as solitary animals, their social interactions are poorly understood. However, a field study published in 2009 gave an explanation of this. Tasmanian devils in Narawntapu National Park are equipped with collars of distance-sensing radar that record their interactions with other devils for several months from February to June 2006. It reveals that all demons are part of a single large contact network, characterized by male-female interactions during the season mating, while female-female interactions are the most common at other times, although the frequency and contact patterns do not differ markedly between seasons. Previously thinking of fighting for food, men rarely interact with other men. Therefore, all demons in a region are part of a single social network. They are considered non-territorial in general, but are territorial women around their nests. This allows the higher total number of demons to occupy certain areas of the territorial animal, without conflict. Tasmanian devil instead occupies the ranks of the house. In the period between two and four weeks, the range of devil's roots is estimated to vary between 4 and 27 km 2 (990 and 6,670 acres), with an average of 13 km 2 (3,200 acres ). The location and geometry of these areas depends on the distribution of food, especially wallabies and nearby pademelon.
Satan uses three or four nests regularly. Dens previously owned by wombats are highly regarded as a nest of labor due to their safety. The dense vegetation near the creek, the thick grass grass, and the cave is also used as a nest. The adult devil uses the same nest for life. It is believed that, as a safe hive is greatly appreciated, some may have been used for centuries by generations of animals. Studies have shown that food security is less important than den security, because habitat destruction that affects the latter has more effects on mortality rates. Young puppies remain in one nest with their mother, and another demon moves, changing the nest every 1-3 days and traveling an average distance of 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) every night. However, there are also reports that the upper limit could be 50 kilometers (31 mi) per night. They chose to travel through the lowlands, saddles and along the banks of creeks, especially preferring carvings and livestock lines and avoiding steep slopes and rocky terrains. The number of movements is believed to be similar throughout the year, except for mothers who gave birth recently. The similarity in travel distance for men and women is not unusual for sexually dimorphic, solitary carnivores. Because men need more food, he will spend more time to eat than traveling. Satan usually makes circuits out of their home range during their hunt. In areas close to human habitation, they are known to steal clothing, blankets and pillows and pick it up for use in nests in wooden buildings.
While dasyurids have the same diet and anatomy, different body sizes influence thermoregulation and thus behavior. In temperatures of between 5 and 30 ° C (41 and 86 ° F), the devil is able to maintain body temperatures between 37.4 and 38 ° C (99.3 and 100.4 ° F). When the temperature is raised to 40 ° C (104 ° F), and humidity up to 50%, the devil body temperature soars up by 2 ° C (3.6 ° F) in 60 minutes, but then continues to decrease. return to the initial temperature after two hours, and stay there for another two hours. During this time, the demons drink water and show no sign of any apparent discomfort, so scientists believe that sweating and evaporative cooling are the main means of heat dissipation. The next study found that the Devil was panting but did not sweat to release heat. In contrast, many other marsupials are unable to withstand their body temperature. Because smaller animals should live in hotter and drier conditions where they are less well adapted, they take a nocturnal lifestyle and lower their body temperature during the day, while the devil is active during the day and the temperature varies. with 1.8 Â ° C (3.2 Â ° F) from minimum at night to maximum in the middle of the day.
The standard Tasmanian devil's metabolic rate is 141 kJ/kg (15.3 kcal/lb) per day, many times lower than that of smaller marsupials. The 5-kilogram (11-pound) devil uses 712 kilojoules (170 kcal) per day. The field metabolic rate is 407 kJ/kg (44.1 kcal/lb). Along with quolls, Tasmanian devils have metabolic rates comparable to non-carnivorous marsupials of the same size. It differs from the plasental carnivore, which has a relatively high basal metabolic rate. A study of devils showed weight loss from 7.9 to 7.1 kilograms (17 to 16 pounds) from summer to winter, but at the same time, daily energy consumption increased from 2,591 to 2,890 kilojoules (619-691 kcal ). This is equivalent to an increase in food consumption from 518 to 578 grams (18.3 to 20.4 oz). This diet is protein-based with moisture content of 70%. For every 1 gram (0.035 oz) of consumed insects, 3.5 kilojoules (0.84 kcal) of energy is produced, while the corresponding amount of the wallaby meat produces 5.0 kilojoules (1.2 kcal). In terms of his body mass, the devil consumes only a quarter of the quoll of eastern intake, allowing him to survive longer during food shortages.
Satan is a key species in the Tasmanian ecosystem.
Feed
Tasmanian devils can take prey the size of a small kangaroo, but in practice they are opportunistic and eat carcasses more often than they hunt live prey. Although the devil loves wombats because of the ease of predation and high fat content, he will eat all the small native mammals such as bettong and potoroos, domestic mammals (including sheep), birds, fish, fruits, vegetables, insects, tadpoles, frogs and reptiles. Their food is very varied and depends on the food available. Before the extinction of the thylacine, the Tasmanian devil eats a Tasmanian tiger alone in a nest when their parents leave. This may have helped speed up the extinction of the thylacine, which also eats the devil. They are known to hunt water rats at sea and to fish for dead fish that have been stranded on the beach. Near human habitation, they can also steal shoes and chew them, and eat strong lamb legs as they slip in the wood-shaving shed, leaving their feet hanging down. Other unusual things observed in the devil include collars and tags of devoured animals, whole echidna spines, pencils, plastics and jeans. Although demons can bite through metal traps, they tend to stoke a strong jaw to avoid captivity rather than breaking into food storage. Because of their relatively poor velocity, they can not run to wallabies or rabbits, but they can attack animals that become slow because of illness. They survey the flock by sniffing them from 10-15 m (33-49 ft) and attacking if the prey is sick. Their sheep seals show strength.
Despite the lack of extreme speed, there are reports that the devil can run at 25 km/h (16 mph) to 1.5 km (0.93 miles), and has guessed that, before European immigration and the introduction of livestock, vehicles and vehicles, pursue other native animals at a reasonable pace to find food. Pemberton has reported that they can average 10 km/h (6.2 mph) for "extended periods" on some nights per week, and that they run for long distances before sitting idly for half an hour, something that has been interpreted as evidence of ambush predation.
Satan can dig to search for bodies, in one case excavate to eat the corpse of a buried horse that has died from illness. They are known to eat animal carcasses by first tearing the digestive system, which is the softest part of the anatomy, and they are often in the cavities they produce when they eat.
On average, demons eat about 15% of their body weight each day, although they can eat up to 40% of their weight in 30 minutes if there is a chance. This means they can become very heavy and lethargic after a big meal; in these circumstances they tend to walk slowly and lie down, becoming easy to approach. This has led to the belief that such eating habits become possible because of the lack of predators to attack such bloated individuals.
Tasmanian devils can eliminate all traces of smaller animal carcasses, devour bones and feathers if desired. In this case, the devil has gained gratitude from Tasmanian farmers, because the speed of cleaning the carcass helps prevent the spread of insects that may harm the livestock. Some of these dead animals are discarded when the demons pull the leftovers back to their homes to continue eating at other times.
Demonic diets can vary substantially for men and women, and seasonally, according to research at Cradle Mountain. In winter, men prefer medium to large mammals, with a ratio of 4: 5, but in summer they prefer larger prey at a ratio of 7: 2. Both categories account for more than 95% of the diet. Women are less likely to target large prey, but have the same seasonal bias. In winter, large and medium mammals are 25% and 58% respectively, with 7% small mammals and 10% of birds. In the summer, the first two categories account for 61% and 37% respectively.
The young devil is sometimes known to climb trees; In addition to small vertebrates and invertebrates, teenagers climb trees to eat maggots and bird eggs. Teenagers have also been observed climbing into the nest and catching birds. Throughout the year, adult devils acquired 16.2% of their biomass intake from arboreal species, almost all of them possum meat, only 1.0% to large birds. From February to July, the sub-adult devils acquired 35.8% of their biomass intake from arboreal life, 12.2% became small birds and 23.2% as possums. Female devils in winter sources account for 40.0% of their intake of arboreal species, including 26.7% of possums and 8.9% of various birds. Not all of these animals are caught when they are in the trees, but this high figure for this woman, higher than the quoll-tailed men seen during the same season, is unusual, because the devil has the skills of climbing a lower tree.
Although they are hunting alone, there is an unproven claim of communal hunting, in which a demon evokes prey out of its habitat and attacks an accomplice. Eating is a social event for Tasmanian devils. This combination of solitary animals eating together makes a unique demon among carnivorous animals. Most of the sounds associated with animals are the result of a raucous communal meal, in which up to 12 people can gather, although groups of two to five are common; often heard a few kilometers away. This has been interpreted as a notice to colleagues to be shared in food, so that food is not wasted by decomposing and stored energy. The amount of noise is correlated with the size of the carcass. Satan eat according to the system. Teenagers are active at dusk, so they tend to reach the source before the adults. Typically, the dominant animal eats to full and leaves, against any challenger for a while. The defeated animals ran into the bush with their hair and tails erect, their conquerors chasing and biting behind their victims if possible. Disputes are less common as food sources increase because the motive seems to be getting enough food rather than suppressing other demons. When quolls eat carcasses, demons will tend to drive them away. This is a big problem for quoll-tailed tails, as they kill relatively large possums and can not finish their food before the demons arrive. In contrast, smaller eastern quolls prey on much smaller survivors, and can finish eating before the demons appear. This is seen as a possible reason for the relatively small quoll-tailed spotting population.
A study of demon eating identifies twenty physical postures, including their vaporous evaporative characteristics, and eleven different vowel sounds that demons use to communicate as they feed. They usually establish dominance by sound and physical posture, although fights do occur. White spots on the devil seen by night vision of his colleagues. Chemical cues are also used. Adult males are the most aggressive, and scarring is common. They can also stand on their hind legs and push each shoulder with their front paws and heads, similar to sumo wrestling. Tearing meat around the mouth and teeth, as well as punctures in the buttocks, can sometimes be observed, though this can also be generated during fighting fights.
Digestion is very fast in dasyurids and, for Tasmanian devils, a few hours taken for food to pass through the small intestine is a long period compared to some other dasyuridae. Satan is known to return to the same spot to defecate, and to do so in a communal location, called devil's toilet . It is believed that communal bowel movements can be a means of communication that is not well understood. Satan's wounds are very large compared to body size; they average 15 cm (5.9 inches), but there is a sample that is 25 cm (9.8 inches) long. They are characteristically gray because bones are digested, or have bone fragments included.
Owen and Pemberton believe that the connection between Tasmanian devils and the Tasmanian tiger is "close and complex", as they compete directly for prey and possibly also for shelter. Thylacines prey on demons, demons scavenging from the killing of the Tasmanian tiger, and the devil eats the young thylacine. Menna Jones hypothesized that the two species share the role of top predators in Tasmania. The wedge-eagle eagle has the same carcass-based diet as the devil and is considered a competitor. Quolls and demons are also seen to be in direct competition in Tasmania. Jones believes that the quoll has evolved into the current state in just 100-200 generations of about two years determined by the effect of the same distance on devils, the largest species, the leopard quoll, and the smallest species, the eastern quoll.. Both Tasmanian demons and quolls appear to have evolved up to 50 times faster than the average rate of evolution among mammals.
Reproduction
Females begin breeding when they reach sexual maturity, usually in their second year. At this point, they become fertile once a year, producing some ovum during heat. As the most abundant prey in spring and early summer, the vicious cycle of reproduction begins in March or April so that the end of the weaning period coincides with maximizing the supply of food in the wild to newly wandering young demons. Occurs in March, mating takes place in a sheltered location during day and night. Men fight over females in the breeding season, and the female devil will marry the dominant man. Women can ovulate up to three times in a 21-day period, and intercourse can take five days; one example of a couple in the dowry for eight days has been recorded. Devils are not monogamous, and females mate with some males if they are not kept after marriage; men also reproduce with several women during one season. Women have been shown to be selective in their efforts to ensure the best genetic offspring, for example, against the advancement of smaller males. Men often keep their friends in custody in the study, or bring them together if they need to drink, lest they get involved in an affair. Men can produce up to 16 offspring during their lifetime, while women averaging four breeding seasons and 12 children. Theoretically this means that the devil's population can multiply annually and make the species isolated against high mortality. High pregnancy rate; 80% of two-year-old females are observed with newborns in their pockets during the breeding season. A more recent study of breeding places the mating season between February and June, compared between February and March.
Pregnancy lasts 21 days, and the devil gives birth to 20-30 young people standing, each weighing about 0.18-0.24 grams (0.0063-0.0085 oz). At birth, the front limbs have well-developed digits with claws; unlike many marsupials, the devil baby's claws do not change. Like most other marsupials, the forelimb is longer (0.26-0.43 cm or 0.10-0.17 deep) than the rear extremity (0.20-0.28 cm or 0.079-0.110 in), the eye is a spots- spots, and the body is pink. No ears or external openings. Unusually, sex can be determined at birth, with the presence of an external scrotum.
Young Tasmanian demons are often called "puppies", "joeys", or "imps". When children are born, the competition is very tight as they move from the vagina into the sticky slime mucus into the pouch. Once inside the pockets, they each remain attached to the nipple for the next 100 days. The Tasmanian devil's female pouch, like a wombat, opens backward, so it is physically difficult for women to interact with young in a pouch. Despite the great litter at birth, females only have four nipples, so there are never more than four breastfed babies in the pockets, and the older the female devil, the smaller the pandas will become. Once the young have made contact with the nipple, it expands, producing a large nipple firmly clamped inside the newborn and ensuring that the newborn does not fall out of the bag. On average, more women survive than men, and up to 60% of youth do not survive until maturity.
Dairy substitutes are often used for demons who have been raised in captivity, for orphaned or young demons born to sick mothers. Little is known about the composition of demon milk compared to other marsupials.
Inside the pocket, the youth fed is growing rapidly. In the second week, the rhinarium becomes distinctive and highly pigmented. At 15 days, the outside of the ear is visible, although it is attached to the head and does not open until the devil is about 10 weeks old. The ears begin to darken after about 40 days, when less than 1 cm (0.39 inches) in length, and when the ear becomes erect, it is between 1.2 and 1.6 cm (0.47 and 0.63 inches). The eyelid is seen at 16 days, mustache at 17 days, and lips at 20 days. Satan can make a squeaking sound after eight weeks, and after about 10-11 weeks, the lips can open. Despite the formation of the eyelids, they are not open for three months, although eyelashes form about 50 days. The young - up to this point they are pink - start growing feathers in 49 days and have a full coat by 90 days. The process of feather growth begins in the snout and continues throughout the body, although the tail reaches the feather before the buttocks, which is the last part of the body to be covered. Just before the start of the furring process, the bare skin color of the devil will become dark and become black or dark gray on the tail.
Satan has a complete set of facial vibrissae and ulnar carpels, though it lacks anconeal vibrissae. During the third week, mystique and ulnarcarpal were the first to form. Furthermore, infraorbital, interramal, supraorbital and submental vibrissae forms. The last four usually occur between the 26th and the 39th days.
Their eyes open as soon as their fur coat develops - between 87 and 93 days - and their mouths can loosen their nipples on 100 days. They leave the bag 105 days after birth, appearing as a small copy of the mother and weighing about 200 grams (7.1 oz). Zoologist Eric Guiler notes its current size as follows: 5.87 cm (2.31 inches) long crown length, 5.78 cm (2.28 inches) long tail, 2.94 cm (1.16 inch) , 2.30 cm (0.91 inches) manus, 4.16 cm (1.64 inches) calf, 4.34 cm (1.71 inches) lower arm and crown jaw length is 11.9 cm (4.7 inch). During this period, the devil extends at a rough level.
Once expelled, demons remain outside the pockets, but they remain in the study for about three months, first venturing outside the nest between October and December before becoming independent in January. During this transition phase out of the bag, the young devils are relatively safe from predation because they are generally accompanied. When the mother is hunting, they can stay in shade or join, often riding on their mother's back. During this time they continue to drink their mother's milk. Satan females are busy with raising their child for all, but about six weeks a year. Milk contains higher amounts of iron than placental mammals. In the 1970 Guiler research, no woman died while raising their offspring in the pockets. After leaving the bag, the devil grows about 0.5 kg per month until they are six months old. While most puppies will survive to be weaned, Guiler reports that up to three fifths of demons do not reach maturity. Because teenagers are more crepuscular than adults, their appearance in the open during the summer gives people the impression of a population explosion. A study of transplanted satanic successes that were orphaned and raised in captivity found that young devils who consistently engage with new experiences when they are in captivity survive better than young ones who do not.
Embrios diapause do not happen.
Guillers have reported that consecutive hermaphroditism (sex change) has occurred in the captured devils, while Pemberton and Mooney recorded in 2004 animal cases with scrotum and non-functional pouch.
In a real response to reducing competition caused by devil facial tumor disease, female devils in areas with diseases are now more likely to start breeding at the age of one year. It also causes less well-defined reproductive seasons, with births spreading throughout the year. Children born to mothers with DFTD have more daughters than males.
Slow-release hormone contraceptive implants for female devils are being developed and tested in a joint program between the Save the Tasmanian Devil program, the Zoo and Aquarium Association, the Taronga Conservation Society, and the University of Sydney. The wildlife contraceptive program aims to help the demons continue with their wild behavior by marrying freely, but without certain females contributing too much to the next generation, which "can have long-term genetic consequences for the insurance population". The contraceptive experiments on the male demon showed that their testosterone increased, rather than decreased as did other mammalian testosterone. Initial studies have shown that female contraception has been successful, and female contraceptive implants will be tested in the Maria Island insurance population.
Conservation status
Spread throughout Australia in the Pleistocene, Tasmanian devils have declined and become limited to three vulnerable populations during the mid-Holocene period about 3,000 years ago. The art of rock and a fossil near Darwin leads to the northern population, and remained in the southeast indicating the southeastern population from the mouth of the Murray River eastward to the vicinity of Port Phillip in Victoria. The population has contracted from northern Victoria and New South Wales. Rising sea levels in the Holocene also cut it off from the Tasmanian population. The third population is from southwestern Western Australia. Fossil evidence from this last location proved controversial. Like many native animals, the ancient devils were larger than their contemporary descendants. In 1972, Mike Archer and Alex Baynes discovered devil teeth at the foot of a cliff near Augusta in Western Australia and dated 430 Â ± 160 years, a number widely circulated and quoted. Australian archaeologist Oliver Brown has denied this, stating that the writer's uncertainty about the origin of his teeth doubted their age, especially since the others remained all dated some 3,000 years ago.
The cause of their disappearance from the mainland is unclear, but their decline seems to coincide with expansion in mainland Australia and dingo. However, is it the direct hunting by people, the competition with dingo, the changes caused by the rising human population, which by 3000 years ago used all types of habitats across the continent, or a combination of all three, is unknown; Satan has been living side by side with the dingo on the mainland for about 3000 years. Brown has also proposed that El NiÃÆ'Â Â o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) grew stronger during the Holocene, and that the devil, as a scavenger with short life spans, is very sensitive to this. In the dingo-free Tasmania, carnivorous marsupials are still active when Europeans arrive. The extermination of the Tasmanian tiger after the arrival of the Europeans is well known, but the Tasmanian devil is also threatened.
Thylacines prey on demons, and demons attack the young Tasmanian tiger; Satan may have accelerated the extinction of thylacine. While the thylacine still exists, apart from demonic hunting, it can also suppress the demons to survive, by competing for food and rare nests; both animals look for caves and burrows. It has been speculated that Satan may become more powerful and lead a larger home range to fill the void left by the Thylacine.
Habitat disturbance can expose the nest in which the mother raises their child. This increases the mortality rate, because the mother leaves the disturbed nest with her children attached to her back, making them more vulnerable.
Cancer in general is a common cause of death in the devil. In 2008, the high content of carcinogenic refractory chemicals was found in Tasmanian devils. Preliminary results from tests ordered by the Tasmanian government on chemicals found in fat tissue of 16 demons have revealed high levels of hexabromobiphenyl (BB153) and "high enough" levels of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE209). The Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal is the official fund-raising entity for Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. The priority is to ensure the survival of Tasmanian devils in the wild.
Since 1999, all the devils caught on the field have undergone ear biopsies, providing DNA samples. As of September 2010, there are 5,642 samples in this collection.
Population decreased
At least two major population declines, perhaps due to epidemic diseases, have occurred in recorded history: in 1909 and 1950. Satan was also reported as rare in the 1850s. It is difficult to estimate the size of the devil's population. In the mid-1990s, the population was estimated at 130,000-150,000 animals, but this may be exaggerating. The Tasmanian devil population was calculated in 2008 by the Department of Primary and Water Industry of Tasmania in the range of 10,000 to 100,000 individuals, with 20,000 to 50,000 adults becoming possible. Experts estimate that the devil has experienced more than 80% decline in its population since the mid-1990s and only about 10,000-15,000 remain in the wild in 2008.
The species is listed as vulnerable under the Thasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 in 2005 and the Australia Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 in 2006, which means that it risk of extinction in the "medium term". The IUCN classified Tasmanian devils in the lower risk/less attention category in 1996, but by 2009 they were reclassified as endangered. Proper wildlife sanctuaries such as Savage River National Park in northwestern Tasmania provide hope for their survival.
Destroy
The first Tasmanian settlers ate Tasmanian devils, which they described as tasting veal. As Satan believes will hunt and kill livestock, perhaps because of the strong image of the weak lamb's devil meal package, the bounty scheme to remove demons from rural property was introduced as early as 1830. However, Guiler's research argues that the real cause of livestock loss is poor land management policies and wild dogs. In areas where demons are now absent, poultry continues to be killed by quolls. In ancient times, possum hunting and wallabies for feathers were big business - more than 900,000 animals hunted in 1923 - and this resulted in the continuation of bounty hunting of devils because they were considered a great threat to the fur industry, although quolls were more adept at hunting animals concerned. For the next 100 years, trapping and poisoning took them to the brink of extinction.
After the death of the last Tasmanian tiger in 1936, the Tasmanian devil was protected by law in June 1941 and its population slowly recovered. In the 1950s, with reports of increasing numbers, some permissions to capture demons were granted after complaints of livestock damage. In 1966, poisoning permits were issued although efforts to protect animals failed. During this time environmental activists have also become more outspoken, especially since scientific research provides new data showing demonic threats to livestock have been exaggerated. The number may have peaked in the early 1970s after the population explosion; in 1975 they were reported to be lower, possibly due to overpopulation and consequently lack of food. Other reports of overpopulation and livestock damage were reported in 1987. The following year, the Trichinella spiralis, a parasite that kills animals and can infect humans, was found in demons and a small panic ensued before scientists assured the public. that 30% demons have it but they can not send it to other species. The control permits expired in the 1990s, but the illegal killings continue to be limited, albeit "very strong". This is not considered a substantial issue for the survival of the devil. About 10,000 demons were killed per year in the mid-1990s. Selective extermination programs have been performed to eliminate DFTD-affected individuals, and have been shown to not slow the rate of disease progression or reduce the number of dying animals. A model has been tested to determine whether DFTD-infected devil destruction will help the survival of the species, and has found that culling will not be a suitable strategy to use.
Mortality path
Motor vehicles are a threat to the local populations of the abundant Tasmanian mammals, and a 2010 study shows that Satan is very vulnerable. A study of nine species, mostly marsupials of the same size, suggests that demons are more difficult for drivers to detect and avoid. At high beams, the devil has the lowest detection distance, 40% closer than the median. This requires a 20% reduction in speed for the rider to avoid the devil. For low light, Satan is the seventh worst in terms of detection distance, 16% below median. To avoid roadkill being viable, motorists must drive about half of the current speed limit in rural areas. A study in the 1990s about a local devil population in a national park in Tasmania recorded half the population after the gravel access road until now was upgraded, emerging with asphalt and widening. At the same time, there is a large increase in deaths caused by vehicles along new roads; nothing in six months before. Most of the deaths occurred on the sealed part of the road, believed to be due to increased speed. It was also suspected that the animals were harder to see on the dark asphalt than light pebbles. Devils and quolls are very vulnerable because they often try to take the road for food and travel along the way. To address this problem, the steps of a traffic slowdown, a man-made path that offers an alternative route to demons, educational campaigns, and the installation of light reflectors to indicate an approaching vehicle has been implemented. They are credited with a decrease in the roadkill. Satan is often a victim of slaughter when they take back other wrecks. Working by scientist Menna Jones and a group of conservation volunteers to remove dead animals from the road resulted in a significant drop in devil traffic deaths. It is estimated that 3,392 demons, or between 3.8 and 5.7% of the population, were killed annually by vehicles in 2001-04. In 2009, the Save the Tasmanian Devil group launched the "Roadkill Project", which allows community members to report sightings of demons who have been killed on the road. On September 25, 2015, 20 immised demons were microchipped and released at Narawntapu National Park. On October 5, 4 has been hit by a car, prompting Samantha Fox, leader of Save the Tasmanian Devil, to portray roadkill as the biggest threat to Tasmanian devils after DFTD. A series of solar-powered alarms have been tested that make sounds and flashlights when the car approaches, warning the animals. The trial lasted for 18 months and the trial area had two-thirds less death than control.
Devil face tumor disease
First seen in 1996 at Mount William in northeastern Tasmania, devil facile tumor disease (DFTD) has destroyed the Tasmanian wild devil, and its impact estimates range from 20% to as much as 80% of the devil population's decline, with over 65% of the affected countries. The west coast of the state and far northwest is the only place where demons are free from tumors. Individual devils die within a few months after infection.
This disease is an example of infectious cancer, which means infectious and move from one animal to another animal. However, these tumors are not derived from Tasmanian devils and are also characterized as graft tissue that is capable of passing between hosts without eliciting a response from the host immune system. The dominant demon that engages in bite-related behavior is more affected by the disease. No cure, scientists transfer sick animals and quarantine healthy demons if wild populations die. Because Tasmanian devils have very low levels of genetic diversity and unique chromosome mutations among carnivorous mammals, they are more susceptible to infectious cancers.
The Tasmanian Tasmanian major histocompatibility complex, or MHC, is very important in cancer mechanisms. MHC molecules are integral proteins in the immune system to fight disease. Under normal circumstances, a tumor graft must be recognized by the MHC protein and induce an immune response. Due to the lack of diversity in this MHC, however, these molecules can not recognize the tumor as a foreign body. This allows the disease to spread throughout the population without being threatened by the host's own immune system, further facilitating its transmission. This loss of diversity is thought to be due to some of the fluctuations in Tasmanian devil populations that have occurred in recent decades. When the population is reduced to a very low amount, genetic variation may decrease, resulting in very similar MHC molecules in makeup.
Wild Tasmanian devil populations are being monitored to track the spread of the disease and to identify changes in the prevalence of disease. Field monitoring involves a devil's trap in a designated area to check for the presence of the disease and determine the number of affected animals. The same area is visited repeatedly to mark the spread of the disease over time. So far, it has been established that the short-term effects of disease in an area can be severe. Long-term monitoring at replicated sites will be critical to assess whether these effects persist, or whether the population can recover. Field workers also test the effectiveness of disease suppression by trapping and getting rid of sick demons. It is hoped that the removal of sick devils from wild populations should reduce the prevalence of the disease and allow more demons to survive beyond their teenage years and breed.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on June 27, 2011, suggests choosing genetically diverse livestock breeds, determined by the genome sequence, for conservation efforts. In 2011, it is estimated that it will cost $ 11 million to preserve the Tasmanian devil species.
Research by Professor Greg Woods of the University of Tasmania Menzies Research Institute has shown encouraging evidence for the potential development of vaccines using tumor facial tumor cells to trigger an immune response to healthy devils. Field testing of the vaccine is underway as a collaborative project between the Menzies Institute for Medical Research and the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program under the Wild Devil Recovery program, and aims to test immunization protocols as a tool to ensure long-term survival of the evil. in the wild.
In March 2017 it was reported that scientists for the first time managed to treat Tasmanian devils suffering from this disease by injecting live cancerous cells into infected demons to make their immune system recognize the disease and fight it, in an expected breakthrough. to accelerate the development of effective vaccines that can be given to demons in the wild.
Relationships with humans
At Lake Nitchie in western New South Wales in 1970, a male human skeleton wearing a 178 tooth necklace of 49 different demons was discovered. The skeleton is estimated to be 7000 years old, and the necklace is believed to be much older than the skeleton. Archaeologist Josephine Flood believes that the devil was hunted for his teeth and this caused extinction on the Australian mainland. Owen and Pemberton noted that some such necklaces have been found. The middleman containing rare demon bones - two notable examples is Devil's Lair in southwestern Western Australia and Tower Hill in Victoria.
In Tasmania, the Aboriginal and the local devils take refuge in the same cave. Tasmanian Aboriginal names for demons recorded by Europeans include "tarrabah", "poirinnah", and "par-loo-mer-rer". According to Fritz Noetling, Secretary of the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1910, there is no evidence that the Tasmanian Aborigines ate carnivorous animals. Owen and Pemberton felt this might have contributed to the survival of the devil before the European settlement. Convicts at a time when Hobart was settling on making Tasmanian devil food and it was claimed not like veal.
It is a common belief that demons will eat humans. Although they are known to eat the bodies of murder victims or people who have committed suicide, there is a common myth that they eat live people walking in the bushes. Despite their belief and exaggerated exaggeration of their dispositions, many, though not all, demons will remain silent when in the presence of a human being; some will also wobble nervously. They can bite and scratch fear when held by humans, but a strong grip will cause them to remain silent. Although they can be domesticated, they are asocial and are not considered as pets; they have an unpleasant smell and do not show or respond to affection.
Until now, the devil is not much studied by academics and naturalists. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Hobart zoo operator, Mary Roberts, who is not a trained scientist, is credited for changing people's attitudes and encouraging scientific interest in native animals such as demons that are considered scary and disgusting, and the human perception of animals is changing. Theodore Thomson Flynn was the first biology professor in Tasmania and undertook research during the period of World War I. In the mid 1960s Professor Guiler collected t
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