ABOVE: A Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)
MENNA JONES
On the whole, the 20th century was pretty rough for Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). Just when their numbers seemed to finally be recovering after more than a century of poisoning and trapping, a strange, deadly disease emerged: the contagious cancer known as devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). Infected devils grow large, disfiguring tumors, especially on their faces—hence the name—and the vast majority die. In fact, within five years of DFTD’s first appearance in 1996, populations hit by the disease had declined by around 80 percent, and scientists feared the cancer would wipe the devils out in a matter of decades.
These days, the disease continues to kill the world’s largest marsupial carnivore, and populations remain concerningly small. But, according to experts such as Menna Jones, a vertebrate ecologist at the University of Tasmania who has worked with devils for more than 30 years, ...
