::: WILD STUFF


A devil
in disguise

PART II | When an animal is described as “usually ambling along” and sneaking out in a secluded spot for a quiet snooze in the sunshine, you wonder why the diabolical tag sticks. That famous yawn, for example, is not a threat, but rather a sign of fear or uncertainty. It also demonstrates those large teeth in that wide jaw (the “all the better to eat you with, my dear” syndrome) and warns other edgy devils off.

And those fiery red ears? When a devil is stressed or very excited, the ears flush with blood. Just as they hold their tails straight up to show they mean business. In common with other animals, such as the cat, the devil’s tail semaphores their state of mind, and may be held in many different positions.

Females are likely to be more aggressive when they have young to care for and need lots of food. They kick the males out of the nest, too, when the babies are leaving the pouch.

Male devils, while not necessarily truly gruesome, show little discrimination if they are hungry and might decide to demolish their own young.

One reason young devils climb trees — or so it is thought — is that at that tender age they need to get out of the way of marauding older males. Baby devils, not long out of the pouch, may also be attacked by large birds of prey, such as eagles, by day and at night, by large owls like the masked owl and large quolls like the spotted tail quoll.

Tasmanian devils have excellent hearing; like most nocturnal animals, their sight is sharpest in black and white, to help them detect movement at night.

Those long whiskers, lots of them, some on the back of the head, prevent problems around carrion — if the devils’ whiskers are not touching one another when they’re feeding they are also safe from being bitten.

A 10kg devil is described as having a bite as powerful as a 40kg dog.

Mating takes place in March, and there is a three-week gestation period. A large number of devils may be born as tiny embryos but as the mother has only four teats, it’s a race for just a small number (usually just two, maybe three) to struggle through the fur to attach themselves firmly to her teats in the pouch, where they are carried for about four months. They then start venturing out, and as they get older and stronger may be left by mother in a hollow log or other sort of den for much of the day.

At five or six months of age the young are weaned, and by late December are usually living alone in the bush. Experts estimate a devil starts breeding at two years of age, and they probably live up to seven or eight years in the wild. ¶

PART I | PART II

An early lithograph of the Tasmanian Devil. State Library collection