With that said, a friend inspired me to do a little wikipedia searching for the Tasmanian Devil. I hadn't even thought about blogging about this little guy, which just reminds me that there are SO MANY animals in the world. Do you know how many animals are in the world? No, you don't. Because there are SO MANY! How many? SO MANY!
Ok, so I would like to start off by saying in May of this year the main animal of the hour, the Tasmanian Devil was put on the endangered species list. This is due to an initial systematic hunting of Tasmanian Devils who were believed to be a threat to livestock but then continued with the development and widespread outbreak of devil facial tumor disease. Currently, steps are being taken by the government to combat the disease.
The tasmanian devil is the largest existing carnivorous marsupial in the world. It releases an apparently awful smell when it is stressed and has a troubling screech. It is known as a particularly vicious animal and of all the mammals in the world the tasmanian devil's jaws are the strongest. The jaws are so strong due to it's proportionately large head.
The T.D. can live up to 6 years in the wild and a little more in captivity and uses its whiskers on its nose and head in order to locate prey when hunting in the dark. Although the T.D. is carnivorous, it tends to eat more carrion and less freshly caught meat.
The Devil can be found all over Tasmania, even the ouskirts of rural areas and tends to travel in solitude, only occasionally meeting up with other devil's in order to share a meal. The are nocturnal and can apparently also swim. In addition they eat about 15% of their body weight everyday but in some situations can eat 40% their own weight in just 30 minutes. They eat the entirety of their prey including bones and fur and are celebrated by some farmers who cherish the devil for ridding their farm of carcasses that can house insects that would be potentially dangerous to the livestock.
Ok that's all I got for today because I'm exhausted from extreme lack of sleep. I hope you enjoyed.
