Jiansen Lu
Save the Tassie Devil
June 14th 2008 04:39
The Tasmanian Devil is under threat of extinction because of a new transmittable parasitic cancer called Devil Facial Tumour Disease. With the first official case only identified in 1995, the decline in population is estimated to be as high as 50% due to this horrific facial cancer.
The cancer cells themselves are infectious and can be transmitted through biting or shared feeding habits. It is believed that the tumour is able to be spread because of a lack of genetic diversity among Tasmanian devils, and so the cancer cells are not recognised as foreign and are not rejected by the animal's immune system.
The results aren't pretty. A severely diseased devil will have large tumours protruding from the face and neck, sometimes pushing out teeth and invading eye sockets. As the tumours grow so large, they can interfere with feeding, and the animals usually die within six months of showing lesions from starvation.
In Tasmania's north-east region where signs of this cancer were first reported, there has been a 95% decline of average devil sightings, and it is feared the population could be extinct within the next 5 years. The Save the Tasmanian Devil program has sent more than 40 healthy devils to four mainland zoos as population insurance, a large research program has been set up to investigate the disease, and this week the Tasmanian government has pledged a further $12 million towards saving the Tassie Devil.
Check out http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/
The cancer cells themselves are infectious and can be transmitted through biting or shared feeding habits. It is believed that the tumour is able to be spread because of a lack of genetic diversity among Tasmanian devils, and so the cancer cells are not recognised as foreign and are not rejected by the animal's immune system.
The results aren't pretty. A severely diseased devil will have large tumours protruding from the face and neck, sometimes pushing out teeth and invading eye sockets. As the tumours grow so large, they can interfere with feeding, and the animals usually die within six months of showing lesions from starvation.
In Tasmania's north-east region where signs of this cancer were first reported, there has been a 95% decline of average devil sightings, and it is feared the population could be extinct within the next 5 years. The Save the Tasmanian Devil program has sent more than 40 healthy devils to four mainland zoos as population insurance, a large research program has been set up to investigate the disease, and this week the Tasmanian government has pledged a further $12 million towards saving the Tassie Devil.
Check out http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/
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Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
I. Hate. Cancer.
~Dianna