ExtinctZoo - Tasmanian Devils: The Animal That Just Doesn't Make Sense

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Turns out Looney Tunes was missing a few things...

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But what they left out, among other things, is that pound for pound, the Tasmanian devil has the strongest bite force of any living mammal on Earth. So in other words, we're talking about a compact marsupial the size of a chunky terrier, but which can bite harder proportionally than a lion, tiger, or even hyena. But despite this absolutely opi ability, the Tasmanian devil is fighting for survival. And why? Because it's being hunted. Mind you, not by humans, but rather by a disease. Cancer. Contagious cancer. And in case you didn't know this, cancer is not supposed to be contagious,

with there being no known true cancers like this and humans. And in fact, not only are there no known cancers like this in humans, there are essentially no known cancers like this period, with the only other examples being found in a few bivalves, and in bred hamster, in one ancient form found in dogs that's been around since the pyramids were built. And yet, despite that, somehow the Tasmanian devil is not only dealing with one of these cancers, but two of them, two completely transmissible cancers that emerged in one species and has spread to pretty much the entire wild population.

And the fatality rate is almost 100%. So yeah, very bad and very unprecedented. But before getting to that, let's start at the beginning. When Europeans first quote-unquote met Tasmanian devils, they heard them before ever seeing them, with their name, well, at least the devil portion, coming from the noises or screaming that they make, with the Europeans thinking that Satan had somehow relocated to the forest of Tasmania.

But when the animal finally stumbled out of the undergrowth, it looked more like a stocky dog than anything from the underworld. As a full-grown male Tasmanian devil weighs just about 8 kilograms or 18 pounds, which, just for perspective, is smaller than most beagles. So not exactly the stuff of nightmare at first glance, right? But then there's the head, and let's just say that it's so massive compared to the body, that it would make a bulldog jealous.

And there's a very good reason for that comically large skull and neck, as it is this that allows for one of the most powerful bite forces in the entire mammal world. Now, we're not talking about absolute bite force here, where a hippo would obviously demolish pretty much everything, but rather we're talking pound for pound, size adjusted. And scientists measure this using something called a bite force quotient, or BFQ for short, which compares bite force relative to body size. And just for perspective, in African Lion, the so-called king of the jungle, scores 112. Pretty good.

A spotted hyena, 124, which is, by the way, a creature known for its absolutely devastating bone-crunching bite. But the Tasmanian devil, this for Satan, gets a whopping 181, 1801. 180 freaking 1. And this is so high that the only living mammal that gets remotely close to it is the Tiger Quall, a distant cousin of theirs. But those things weigh like 5 pounds or 2.5 kilograms. So about the same size as a pair of work boots, and probably equally as threatening. The devil, on the other hand, while not being giant,

is in a relatively speaking completely different weight class, with its actual measured bite force being 553 Newton. strong enough to bite through, well, a lot of things, and in fact has been known to bite through metal. Yeah, pretty metal. But obviously the bite force would be useless without the hardware to back it up, which it has. Because the teeth, they are devastating, literally, especially to bone, with them having high resemblance to hyena's teeth through convergent evolution. And devils also, funnily enough, share some similarities with dogs as well, having 42 teeth just like them. But unlike dogs, whose adult teeth replace their baby teeth and their...

then stop growing, devil teeth just keep growing throughout their entire lives. And like I alluded to, they don't just bite through flesh. They crunch through skulls, vertebrae, ribs, and pretty much anything else, being known to chew through metal wires to escape traps, which is both impressive and mildly terrifying. And to add on to that, the jaws themselves can open to 75 to 80 degrees, which is, frankly absurd, with most other mammalian predators maxing out at around 60 degrees, while humans average out at only 50 degrees.

But the skull and teeth are not the only weird features evolution through into this package. Take the tail, for instance. Unlike many marsupials, the devil's tail is not especially prehensile, nor particularly powerful, meaning you can't grab things with it, swing from branches like some kind of carnivorous monkey, or use it as a third leg for some good old kickboxing, like their kangaroo cousins do. Nope, instead of serves a completely different purpose. It basically is a camel's hump. Now I know what you're thinking.

What? Let me explain. When times are good and food is plentiful, the tail swells up like a happy sausage. But when food is scarce, it shrinks down to a sad little noodle. And so you can kind of tell the health of a Tasmanian devil by just looking at his tail. But that being said, it might be hard to get close enough to pinpoint that without them running away. Because despite their massive bite force and all that satanic shrieking,

Tasmanian devils are basically scary cats. Being all bark, and well, still bite, but not as much as you might think. And actually, one of the reasons why they scream is to avoid fights, not start them. You see, when two devils meet, such as at a carcass or during mating season, they put on an acting display that would make WWE wrestlers proud. They open their mouths as wide as possible, show off every single one of those continuously growing teeth, and then they'll snarl, hiss, cough, growl, scream. And when things really escalate, they might go on their hind legs and push each other of sumo style. And yes, they will sometimes bite each other, with males often being more aggressive than females, but it's not like a lion death showdown. I like to think of it more as them preferring to be like,

Alright, mate, we're both bloody pissed off, but let's not bash each other's heads in, yeah? And generally, the larger the food source, the less fighting that takes place. So let's scream bloody murder, open their orifice in a general direction, and just generally yell up a storm. But the end result is, problem solved. No one gets a skull-shattering bite, and everyone lives to screech another day. But when they're not busy screaming at each other, what are they doing? Well, during the day they usually are asleep, because devils are nocturnal and crepiscular creatures, having the very good sense to avoid doing anything strenuous in the scorching daylight of Tasmania's sun.

But actually in reality, this is believed not to be an adaptation to weather, but rather to avoid predation by not only eagles, but also humans. And so during the day, they spend their time tucked away in thick vegetation, caves, or in abandoned Wobat burrows, which are especially prized due to their added safety. But when dusk falls, it's go time. They emerge from their dens like furry tanks on a mission, using their acute sense of smell and hearing to trot through Tasmania to find food. And when I say trot, I mean trot, as these guys really get their steps in, with studies of devils fitted with radio collars,

showing an average distance of 8 kilometers or 5 miles per night, with some particularly ambitious individuals hitting 16 kilometers or 10 miles. And that's a lot of ground for those short little stubby legs, which has made all the more impressive by the fact that they can run at speeds up to 25 kilometers or 16 miles per hour, so faster than the vast majority of humans. So basically there are scavengers who are mainly nocturnal who spend most of their time alone looking for food. The whole quote unquote devil reputation comes from again the noises they make when competing for said food, which is understandable when you're a mammal with the highest bite force pound for pound, and you're trying to establish dominance over carcass without getting your face bit enough. Which, speaking of carcasses, their diet is quite widely varied and completely opportunistic, which is a polite way of saying they'll eat basically anything that's dead or dying.

And actually, scratch that. Let's just leave it at anything. Wallabies, wombatts, possums, bandicoats, achidnas, livestock, roadkill, insects, vegetable matter, fruit, literally anything, as long as it's organic. The carry-on can be fresh as a recent kill or it can be old roadkill with a tire track on it. They genuinely do not care. And actually, it seems that I prefer the carry-on with a tire track on it over the thought of actively hunting, considering they spend more time scavenging than actually hunting for life prey.

And when they find food, they do not waste a single scrap, systematically working the way through organs, bones, hide, fur, everything. And while the thought of eating what is essentially food long past the five-second rule might sound gross and very unhygienic to us, it is absolutely crucial for Tasmania's ecosystem, as this is an island without vultures or really any other large scavengers. So without devils, many carcasses would sit around spreading disease. In countries often notice that when scavenger populations deplete, health hazards often rise, such as what was seen in the increase in rabies cases once vulture populations in India were reduced. And these guys are not only good at getting through all the parts, but literally getting all the parts.

as they can eat up to 40% of their body weight in a single sitting, and within 30 minutes at that, which just for perspective, is like the average American eating 34 kilograms or 74 pounds of food in one go. So imagine polishing off three Thanksgiving dinners by yourself, in doing that all the time it takes to watch an episode of One Piece. Oh, and, by the way, you'd be doing this from inside the stomach of the turkey. Well, if you could fit. As Tasmanian devils have been observed, literally eating a hole into the stomach of large enough animals,

and then just continue eating from the inside of the body, refusing to come out until they're done, being apparently all cozy inside their new little stomach den. However, despite being generally solitary, they do seem to prefer some good company when eating food, especially when it's an extra large snack that shows up, with multiple devils often coming to feast in the same animal. And this is where things get interesting and also rather unfortunate for their long-term survival. We'll get to that latter portion in a minute. The point is, is that wild devils are usually solitary, food is a powerful magnet, and at these communal feeding sites, the most dominant animal typically eats first,

making all the noise in the world to keep their quote-unquote friends away, and will also employ some Tasmanian jiu-jitsu if needed. But after all that screaming at the top of their lungs, the hierarchy pretty much soars itself out, and everyone usually gets a share. And in fact, it's often believed that Tasmanian devils seem to, in some sense of the word, actively desire other Tasmanian devils to get food. As scientists have speculated, that perhaps one of the purposes behind their noisy commotion

is actually to attract other devils, and the quote-unquote aggressive behavior they show is not actually to prevent others from eating, but rather just to make sure that they get their fill first, before then handing over the snack to others. And that's honestly pretty nice for a carnivore, it might then sound like a pretty chill life, with them being all Sherry and Carrie.

But to be honest, I have to say that it kind of feels like they're compensating for their earlier brutality and guilt, if you will. You see, every single Tasmanian devil was once an imp. No, seriously, with that being the name for the Joey's or infant Tasmanian devils. And each mother Tasmanian devil has a surprisingly high number of babies, averaging between 20 to 40 per litter depending on the age of the mother.

And that's great in all, but here's the issue. Mother Dearest only has four teets. So 20 to 40 joys, but only four different feeding stations. So cue the brutal race for survival, literally. As it's first come, first served. Winner takes all. Everyone else who doesn't win the game of musical teets is dead. So yeah, up to 90% of their siblings die.

And even after evolving from imp to juvenile devil, life ain't easy for these little furry guys. with 60% of the juveniles not even reaching adulthood. But with that said, as a species, they still do pretty well for themselves, as the only native predators large enough to threaten an adult devil are wretched-tailed eagles and the thylacine. But as you probably know, the thylacine has been extinct for almost 100 years at this point, making the Tasmanian devil the undisputed top... You said this place was steps from the water.

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And no, it's not habitat loss on. or climate change, although those are still problematic. But no, the heavy hitter is something that should be near as scientifically impossible, something that sounds like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie, a contagious cancer. And actually scratch that, two contagious cancers. Yeah, not good. Around 1996, a wildlife photographer near Mount William, northeast Tasmania, noticed something deeply disturbing.

Now, because I don't want to please scar you and gross you out, I'm going to be censoring most of these images. But let me tell you, these photos show something. horrifically wrong, large, ulcerating, infected masses and legions around the mouth and jaw that looked like something straight out of a horror movie. And at the same time, a report came in from farmers in the area, reporting that there was a declining amount of devils being seen in the area. But officials hoped this was just a coincidence. But of course, it wasn't. Once the first report was made of tumors, news started coming in of similar sightings across the state. And then once

authorities really started to look into it, they realized the worst. They had a full-blown pandemic make on their hands. A deadly one at that. At first it wasn't known what was causing it, rather just the symptoms, but by the early 2000s, it became crystal clear that something unprecedented was happening. A cancer was spreading between the animals, something that should pretty much be impossible. Now, you have to understand this disease, the devil facial tumor disease, or DFTD, is not from a virus or bacteria causing the cancer, which is something that is known to happen in many other species, including humans. With HPV, for example, being a known, cancer-causing virus. But in the Tasmanian devil, its actual cancer cells jumping from one animal

to another. And that really should not be possible. As for one, cancer is really not an infectious agent outside of the host individual, with the immune system easily recognizing it and taking care of it. And two, even if it could infect someone else, there's not really an easy way to spread it, normally. But remember all that communal feeding we talked about? The one that sometimes results in them getting a phase full of Tasmanian juditsu? Yeah, that's the transmission route. And really any other their results in biting, such as mating. And what happens, with that teeth come into contact with the tumor tissue, cancer cells get transferred into the wound, and then boom, you've got a new infection.

Now, the cancer itself is believed to be a malignant tumor that originated in Schwann cells, which are cells that insulate nerve fibers through myelin. And these tumors can become absolutely massive, to the extent of almost completely taking over the head in surrounding regions. On top of that, they're not just infecting the skin of the region, but also the underlying tissue, with the end result being that they utterly destroy it. And in the case of the jaw will destroy the bone to prevent feeding, and if it spreads to the eye, will result in blindness, with the end result often being that they die within six months of infection,

from either organ failure, secondary infection, or starvation. But the truly terrifying part isn't just what the cancer does, it's how it does it, meaning how it avoids detection. You see, normally when foreign cells enter your body, your immune system recognizes them as the invaders that they are, and they do this by checking their MHC molecules, which are basically the cell's version of an ID, with cells with the wrong ID getting kicked out or destroyed. But here's the thing, the DFTD cancer cells have downregulated their MHC expression, meaning they don't show any ID at all, making them essentially invisible to the Tasmanian devil's immune system.

A genetic studies in the disease have revealed that all DFT1 tumors trace back to a single female devil, one animal, one mutated cell line that's now been spreading into a clonal parasite for nearly 40 years. And to call this disease devastating is putting it lightly, with it having swept across Tasmania like wildfire, with entire devil populations getting decimated, with some regions even losing more than 95% of their population, and with the disease itself, having spread to nearly 80% of their range. In fact, it's so virulent and dangerous that models of all were predicted that without intervention the Tasmanian devil is as good as extinct.

So understandably, scientists panicked, and the Tasmanian government scrambled to figure out what to do. They tried coaling and infected individuals, hoping to create a disease firebreaks. However, that didn't work, not even slightly. The disease just kept advancing, seemingly intent on wiping the species out. And by this point, you'd probably think the story could impossibly get worse. I mean, again, an unprecedented transmissible cancer was pushing the species towards extinction. But of course, DFTD was like, hold my beer. And thus, it got worse.

In 2014, they got hit with a double whammy, meaning researchers identified a second transmissible cancer. And let me just repeat that, because it does bear repeating. A second transmissible cancer emerged in Tasmanian Devils, just 18 years after the first one was discovered, which is basically like getting struck by lightning twice and then having a shark attack you on land. Except the lightning is contagious cancer, and the shark was dropped there by a freaking tornado.

If you noticed, I had started referring to this disease at one point as DFT1, and the reason why is because the one indicates the first strain, while the second strain is known as DFT2. Now, DFT2 appeared in southeast Tasmania, and despite being noticed in 2014, has an origin date at 2011, with genetic analysis confirming that it was completely independent from DFT1, with this time the cancer originating from a male devil, as opposed to the female origin for DFT1.

But oddly enough, it has the same horrific facial presentation with those similar tumors in the face and mouth, but genetically totally distinct, and the way it avoids the immune system is also different. And to really hammer home how incredibly rare and terrible this is, outside of devils, there's only two other known naturally occurring transmissible cancers in mammals. canine transmissible venereal tumor in dogs, which has been circulating for about 11,000 years, and then another cancer in some very inbred hamster. And that's it.

And yet here we are with the Tasmanian devil being the only mammal species we know of where two independent transmissible cancers exist simultaneously, and within years apart at that. So obviously scientists are trying to figure out why the devils are so unlucky, why they're so uniquely, catastrophically vulnerable to this disease. And the initial idea was that Tasmanian devils have relatively low genetic. diversity, likely being due to both the population bottlenecks and the revolutionary history when the island got cut off from the mainland, as well as hunting and coaling by humans prior to their protected status.

And so the end result is that any one Tasmanian devil is much more highly related to another than they would normally be, making it so their immune systems are less effective and recognizing cells as being foreign from another individual. But this was later shown to probably not be the case, that the being found that they are in fact genetically diverse enough such that this shouldn't be the reason why. And then an incredibly odd turn of events, one researcher in 2004 found three different devil schools in European museums that were disturbingly warped, almost as if by a tumor-like disease. And then on top of that, the London Zoo had a record of a devil dying there of very similar

symptoms to that of DFTD. So the verdict is still out there as to why, Tasmanian Devil seemed to be incredibly susceptible to this, but it definitely seems more complicated than first expected. Now, thankfully, DFT2 has remained far more localized, being located mainly the southeast, whereas as DFT1 covers most parts of Tasmania. But here's the concerning part. DFT2 mutates about three times faster than DFT1, meaning it can more easily gain mutations to make it more transmissible.

However, on the optimistic flip side, this could also mean it will accumulate certain mutations, making it less lethal, but I'm not going to cross my fingers. Now, if there's one thing that should have been clear when I talked about these guys before, is that they are remarkably resilient. I mean, they literally chill in carcasses until they're full for crying out loud.

And in that vein, some devils have been observed having more resistance to the disease, proof that evolution is working in real time to save them, with those who are more resistant, living longer and having more offspring, which then pass on the traits. And there are also cases of devils even having spontaneous regression of the tumor, with studies identifying variants near genes like Pax 3, which seemed to disrupt angiogenesis, which is the formation of new blood vessels, something that is very important for tumors to grow. And so devils with these variants seem to survive longer and sometimes even fight off the cancer entirely. giving nature the middle finger right back at it.

In addition, researchers have also documented Devils living for more than a year after infection, which was also almost unheard of in the early days, giving solid evidence that populations are moving towards a more resistant phenotype, which really makes sense when you have a selective pressure that's strong. I mean, again, the fatality rate is nearly 100%. But even considering the lethalness, this rate of change is still ridiculously fast from an evolutionary standpoint. And interestingly, it's also been found that Tasmanian Devils as a whole, speciesated about 50 times faster than other mammoth.

animals, 50, breaking times. Now, that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the rapid disease resistance, but it's still pretty dang cool. And on top of their own natural badassery, scientists are also working on vaccines to help out, and early trials have been somewhat promising, with one 2017 trial observing about one and five devils show resistance to DFTD after vaccination. Meanwhile, insurance populations have been established in zoos and enclosures, and as of even 2012, the insurance population reached 500 animals, which represented over 98% of

of the species of genetic diversity, something which can often be a problem when conserving a species after near extinction. So obviously the cancer is terrible, but as Tasmanian devils have shown, it is not invincible. But sadly, to add some more rain to the parade, neither are the Tasmanian devils, as the disease is not fighting these guys alone. As if transmissible cancer wasn't bad enough, devils face a bunch of other threats too, the most immediate one being roadkill. A study in the early 2000s estimated that nearly 6% of the devil population is killed

by traffic accidents each year. And one wildlife biologists described road kills as the second largest risk after DFTD. And then of course in typical human fashion, there's also habitat loss, which reduces den safety and lowers prey population. And like I alluded to, historically, devils were persecuted, with bounties on them being introduced as far back as 1830, with farmers blaming devils for killing sheep. Ironically, it is also these same farmers that are largely responsible for the thylacine's extinction, with the same rumors of them killing sheep, also being spread, and a bounty put on their head. And yet, as it so turns out, much of the livestock predation was actually caused by wild

dogs rather than thylacines or Tasmanian devils. But I guess better the devil you know than the devil you don't, literally and figuratively. But here's some good news. Conservation efforts are ramping up significantly. And some of them are not just working, but working spectacularly well. One of the most ambitious projects is the mainland reintroduction program. You see, devils went extinct on the Australian mainland about 3,500 years ago, and The conservation have decided that that was long enough and are bringing them back.

In 2020, an organization called Aussie Ark, successfully rewilded and released, 26 adult Tasmanian Devils into a 400 hectare wildlife sanctuary, marking the first time devils have been in the wild on mainland Australia in thousands of years, which is genuinely a historic moment for conservation. And here's the exciting part. It worked. In 2021, just one year after the initial release, 7 Joey's been born, with 20 more expected to be on the way.

And the success of these projects shouldn't just be measured in devil numbers, but also about long-term impacts on the ecosystem. And as the organization rewild so beautifully puts it, we don't need to reinvent the planet, we need to rewild it. As apex predators, devil populations are correlated with suppressed feral cat populations, meaning their reintroduction in survival not only helps themselves, but also other threatened species, things like bandicoots, potaroos, batongs, coals, and more. But I will say, there have been some mistakes along the way. For example, Maria Island, an island off the east coast of Tasmania, was one of the first sites chosen for disease-free devil reintroduction. And it seemed to work great. The population was established and grew from 28 individuals to around 90. Turns out nobody had fully thought through the impact on the island's seabird colonies.

The fact of the matter is, introducing a generalist predator with zero chill to an island ecosystem can have, let's say, consequences. The devil is absolutely decimated the little penguins, a species fit only named, considering it's the smallest of all penguins. So yeah, big oops. But no one ever said that conservation was easy. But at the end of the day, this is an animal that has survived things that should have killed it multiple times over. It's not guaranteed a happy ending. The disease is still out there, roadkill still a problem, etc. But honestly, if I was a betting man, I'd put some good money on it.

And what I can say for a certain is that they're definitely not going out without a fight, or quietly. Thanks for watching, and until next time. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari.

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