The Tasmanian devil is one of Australia’s most recognisable animals and is found in the wild nowhere else on Earth. For more than two decades, an enormous amount of work has gone into protecting the species as Devil Facial Tumour Disease spread across Tasmania and caused severe population declines.
Researchers, wildlife professionals, government agencies, conservation organisations and wildlife carers have all been part of that response. Insurance populations were established, wild devils monitored, animals translocated and released, and years of research devoted to understanding a disease that presented an extraordinary challenge for the species.
But protecting the Tasmanian devil has never been only about DFTD.
Devils are still killed on Tasmania’s roads. Habitat continues to be cleared and fragmented, and injured and orphaned devils still come into wildlife care. Many of these threats are directly connected to human activity, and some can be reduced.
Decades of work have helped keep the Tasmanian devil in Tasmania’s landscape. Protecting the species now also means looking beyond DFTD at the threats that continue alongside it, particularly those we have some ability to reduce.
The Fight Against Devil Facial Tumour Disease
Devil Facial Tumour Disease was first identified in Tasmania in the 1990s. It spread across much of the state during the decades that followed, causing major declines in devil populations and serious concern about what the disease could mean for the future of the species.
Tasmania’s response developed into one of the state’s longest running wildlife conservation efforts. Through the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, disease surveillance, population monitoring, research and conservation breeding have continued for years. Insurance populations were also established to maintain healthy and genetically diverse devils away from DFTD.
The disease remains present in Tasmania and research continues. Tasmanian devils have persisted despite the scale of the losses caused by DFTD, backed by decades of monitoring, research and conservation work. Our Tasmanian Devil species page looks in more detail at DFTD, along with the devil’s biology, ecology and conservation status in Tasmania.
Disease, however, is not the only reason Tasmania loses devils. Animals continue to be killed on roads, while clearing and fragmentation affect the habitat around them. These are very different problems from DFTD, and many are directly connected to the way people use and change the landscape.
Threats Beyond DFTD
Roads remain one of the most obvious places where Tasmanian devils and people come into conflict. Devils are scavengers, and an animal killed by a vehicle can become an easy meal for another devil. This draws them onto roads and into the path of traffic, sometimes turning one wildlife death into another.
The Tasmanian Devil Roadkill Project has operated since 2009, with reported deaths used to identify roadkill hotspots, monitor devil populations and help determine where action may be needed. More than 7,000 road killed devils have been reported through the project, with around 350 to 450 recorded each year.
Removing dead wildlife from roadsides can prevent scavengers from being attracted to the same location. Lower speeds and appropriate signage can help in areas where wildlife is regularly struck, while drivers themselves can reduce the risk simply by slowing down between dusk and dawn when devils and many other Tasmanian animals are active.
Away from the roads, habitat loss and fragmentation create different problems. Clearing can remove denning and foraging habitat, while fragmentation changes how animals move between the areas that remain. Tasmanian devils are capable of living in landscapes modified by people, but they still need places to feed, breed, shelter and move through the landscape.
Some devils injured through road trauma and other causes will come into wildlife care. Where their injuries can be treated by a vet and the animal can be successfully rehabilitated, there is an opportunity to return that devil to the wild rather than lose another animal from the population.
Reducing road deaths, retaining habitat and returning successfully rehabilitated animals to the wild can all reduce losses while research and disease management continue. These are areas where human decisions can make a direct difference.
Long Term Recovery for the Tasmanian Devil
Seeing Tasmanian devils across the state can make it easy to underestimate what the species has been through. Devils are still seen feeding beside roads, heard calling at night and encountered in places where people and wildlife share the same landscape. Their presence can give the impression of a species that is secure, despite the severe declines caused by DFTD.
The persistence of Tasmanian devils does not mean populations have recovered from those losses. The long term future of the Tasmanian devil depends on healthy populations remaining across its natural range, rather than the species simply continuing to exist in smaller or increasingly isolated populations.
Monitoring DFTD and researching the disease will continue to be important as scientists learn more about changes in the disease and in devil populations. But the condition of devil habitat, the ability of animals to move through the landscape and the continuing loss of devils on Tasmania’s roads will also influence how well populations recover.
DFTD understandably changed the way Tasmania thought about conserving the devil. Road mortality, habitat loss and fragmentation therefore remain part of the conservation picture, regardless of how DFTD changes in the years ahead.
Protecting the Tasmanian Devil
Tasmania has invested decades of research, funding and conservation work in preventing the loss of the Tasmanian devil. Devils remain across much of the state despite the enormous impact of DFTD, and that has not happened without sustained work by researchers, wildlife professionals, conservation organisations, government agencies and others involved in their care and protection.
Hundreds of reported devils are still killed on roads each year, habitat continues to be lost or fragmented, and DFTD has not disappeared. Protecting the species means dealing with all of those pressures.
Few animals are more closely associated with Tasmania. The devil appears on government logos, tourism campaigns, sporting emblems and souvenirs, and its name is recognised around the world. None of that, by itself, protects a single devil in the wild.
If the Tasmanian devil is to remain more than a symbol of Tasmania, the work that has kept the species here must continue, alongside practical efforts to reduce the threats we can control. Otherwise, one of the world’s most recognisable marsupials risks becoming another tragic statistic of a human race that has utterly disrupted the balance of life on Earth.
Editorial Note: Wild Island is committed to publishing accurate, evidence based wildlife information. This article has been researched using authoritative sources, including government agencies, scientific research and wildlife organisations. Information was verified against the sources available at the time of publication.
Cover Image by Mathias Appel / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 1.0.
