Australia Declares Tasmanian Devil Endangered, Thanks To Communicable Cancer Epidemic - AFP

[hatrack]

Australia's Tasmanian devil was listed as endangered on Wednesday due to a contagious and deadly cancer which threatens to wipe out the carnivorous marsupial. The disease, a fast-growing tumour which spreads over the marsupial's face and mouth and prevents it from eating, often killing it within months, is thought to have reduced its numbers by some 60 percent.

Tasmania had previously listed the black-haired animal with vice-like jaws as vulnerable, and state Primary Industries Minister David Llewellyn said the upgrading highlighted the severity of the disease.

"The disease we are fighting is one of the few cancers in the world known to be directly transmissible," Llewellyn said. "In many ways it is defying what is commonly known about disease, in that it is not petering out in areas where it has been for a long time. "This upgrading really reminds us of what we are up against in our efforts to ensure the ongoing survival of the species in the wild."

The facial tumours are spread through biting and since the disease was first observed in 1996, there has been a 64 percent decline in sightings of the devil across Tasmania. In the island state's northeast, where the tumours were first seen, the number of sightings fell by 95 percent over the decade to 2005

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/080521035821.6a7jj1v6.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. and here i thought the critters were extinct....

[hatrack]

2. Maybe you were thinking of the Tasmanian Wolf?

[opihimoimoi]

4. Taz wolf/tiger....them critters had stripes ...yeah, I wuz thinking of these guys...

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Bugger

[NNadir]

5. I think I saw a paper on this subject at the AACR meeting in San Diego.

It's really a very interesting case.

I'll dig around and see if I have some references.