Tasmanian Devil by David Owen

Author:David Owen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NAT019000, NAT046000
ISBN: 9781742692760
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2011-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

In the 1960s naturalist Jack Bauer spent long periods in the Tasmanian bush observing the devil. One night encounter took place near Damper Inn on the Port Davey track in far south-west Tasmania. (Photograph of Geoff Hood by Leo Luckman, Hobart Walking Club, 1940. Courtesy TMAG.)

They will tell you he is a ‘nocturnal animal’ but strangely enough of the 11 I have seen in their wild habitat only one was out at night, at 2.20 am near Damper Inn, on the Port Davey track. If the devil preys on bettongs, wombats, potorus, scrub wallabies, etc, he must go hunting toward evening and in the early morning which are the times when these small marsupials are at their feeding or watering places.

Whether or not the devil and his quarry continue to roam about the bush all night through I don’t know. I have spent many nights sitting it out in the bush with a spotlight in order to spot game. All I have seen were possums, bandicoots, an occasional scrub wallaby. Except for that one devil I have mentioned.

Observing three captive devils I noted that they spend a great part of the day slumbering in their cage. These devils are a mother and her two young, a ‘gal’ and a ‘boy’. During the day they always sleep bunched up together or even one on top of another but never separated. Toward evening they wake up and begin to prowl around the cage snarling and growling. Each is a prime animal and eats one rabbit a day . . .

Devils don’t make good pets, but they aren’t dangerous animals either. The friend of mine who keeps three in captivity has never been able to chum up with the little devils. He can handle the females. They’ll never attempt to bite him. But they don’t show any affection either. But he is quite unable to put a hand on the male. He’s a real tough guy. As soon as my friend enters the cage, the devil snarls and shows his fangs. But he is a small animal weighing at most 12 lb (this is the weight of a prime specimen) and he can be put out of circulation with a well-placed kick if he decides to attack.

Devils smell. I have struck two devil lairs (just a scrub-bed under a log) and the smell coming from them was appalling. Like all the other Dasyurus, the female devil’s pouch is oriented backwards, that is, contrarywise to the kangaroo’s. She seems to have a usual litter of two young which she carries in the pouch for perhaps three months or so. In the pouch there are two pairs of teats.

In the old days, devils were killed by dogs, shot by hunters, poisoned, and trapped. As you can imagine, shooting a devil is no great shakes as a sport but you do have to shoot quickly because although he is a slow runner, he can move plenty fast in the scrub. He moves in a lop-sided, shambling gait reminiscent of a bear.

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