#sarcophilus

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A Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) in Ballarat National Park, Australia

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Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), family Dasyuridae, Order Dasyuromorphia, Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia

photograph by Tim's Australian Nature Pics

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#2793 - Sarcophilus harrisii - Tasmanian Devil

One of the... interesting ... examples of taxidermy in the Victorian-style wing of the Otago Museum. I have no idea what they did to the poor thing to make it look like that. Soaked it in bleach perhaps? They're SUPPOSED to look like this -

(Photo by JJ Harrison, Wikipedia)

Or possibly this.

Anyway - originally described in 1807, by George Prideaux Robert Harris, deputy surveyor and naturalist in Van Dieman's Land (later Tasmania) from 1803 until his death there 7 years later. He called it Didelphis ursina, thinking it was an opossum with bear-like ears. However that binomial had already been applied to the common wombat - also not an opossum, and renamed Vombatus ursinus later anyway. In 1838, it was named Dasyurus laniarius by Richard Owen (a very skilled zoologist but GIGANTIC asshole) but he later put it in it's own genus Sarcophilus. The current binomial mean's "Harris's flesh-lover") and was coined by French naturalist Pierre Boitard in 1841.

Other names have included purinina, in palawa kani, "Beelzebub's pup", Sarcophilus satanicus ("Satanic flesh-lover") and Diabolus ursinus. The animals did NOT have a good reputation among their European settlers, who were unnerved by the hideous screaming at night, and an perceived threat to livestock.

The largest surviving carnivorous marsupial, after the extinction of the Thylacine (another much-maligned marsupial imagined to be a threat to sheep). Males are usually larger than females, with an average head and body length a little over 65cm (25.7 in), and an average weight of 8 kg (18 lb).

Carnivores and carrion feeders, mostly active at night, and not particularly territorial unless they're a female defending their den. Home ranges are estimated to vary between 4 and 27 sq.km., depending on how many wallabies and pademelons live in the area. They can take down prey as large as a small kangaroo, and favour wombats, but also eat wallabies, bettong and potoroos, echidnas, water rats, domestic mammals (including pets, rabbits and the legs of sheep that have slipped between the floorboards in wooden shearing sheds, leaving their legs dangling below), birds (including penguins), fish, fruit, vegetable matter, insects, tadpoles, frogs and reptiles, but carrion remains the bulk of the diet. Near human habitation, they can also steal shoes and chew on them.

They can eat up to 40% of their body weight in 30 minutes, so carcasses around farms tend not to last long. Quite a handy clean-up service, as far as the farmers are concerned. The notorious shrieking and growling occurs when multiple Devils (up to twelve) converge on a carcass and sort out who gets to eat first.

Devils are now only found on the island of Tasmania, although they and two other species once existed on the mainland. Threats to their survival include a bounty paid for their extermination between 1830 and the 1930s, but after the extinction of the Thylacine in 1936 moves were finally made to protect them. Vehicle collisions are also a serious problem. More recently, Devil facial tumour disease, a transmissible cancer that the Devils catch off each other when squabbling and biting, has become an extremely serious problem, with tumour-free populations becoming dangerously inbred.

Otago Museum, Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand, Tasmanian Devil,

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Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), family Dasyuridae, Order Dasyuromorphia, Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park, Taranna, Tasmania, Australia

photograph by JJ Harrison

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A Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) in San Diego Zoo

by Jasper @Rzubio

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A Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) on Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

by Annette Fallin

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Mclovin, a Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) housed at the San Diego Zoo

by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

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Tasmanian devils Australia Sarcophilus satanicus

Tasmanian devils Australia Sarcophilus satanicus

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Image Source : AP

In this Dec. 21, 2012, file photo, Big John the Tasmanian devil growls from the confines of his tree house as he makes his first appearance at the Wild Life Sydney Zoo in Sydney. Tasmanian devils, the carnivorous marsupials whose feisty, frenzied eating habits won the animals cartoon fame, have returned to mainland Australia for the first time in some 3,000 years.…

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