Tasmanian Devil

(Jrt)

Tasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), also Tasmanischer devil, is a species of the family Raubbeutler (Dasyuridae) and the greatest living representative. It is now found only in Tasmania to find. On the Australian mainland, he is probably already in 14th Century extinct. Back to the supposed protection of livestock, he was in Tasmania until the 30s of the 20th Century intensively hunted. Since the 1941 Tasmanian Devil has been under protection, the stock has stabilized and recovered. However, the Tasmanian Devil since the late 90s by the disease DFTD threat to the survival of the species could endanger.

Name
His name was negatively of the Tasmanian Devil because of his black coat, his ears, the excitement in red dye, particularly his excitement at very unpleasant body, its loud Kreischens that has very long distances yet to be heard, and his aggressive behaviour and curious compared with a loot and beaten about everything he encountered.

Its scientific name has doubled in the last two years repeatedly changed. The scientist George Harris described the 1807 first Tasmanian Devil, and gave it the scientific name Didelphis ursina. 1838 was the devil by Richard Owen in Dasyurus laniarius renamed. The name, however, was not long. Pierre Boitard 1841 ordered the nature of the genus Sarcophilus and identified accordingly in the manner Sarcophilus harrisii.

Recent phylogenetic studies show that the Tasmanian Devil closely with the Beutelmardern used, as they are in the family of Raubbeutler classified. To extinct Thylacine is only a distant relationship. He was the only representative of the recent family of wolves bag (Thylacinidae).

Characteristics
The Tasmanian Devil is the largest Raubbeutler still living. The males have an average head fuselage length of 65 centimeters, the tail has on average a length of just under 26 centimeters, and they weighed eight kilograms. Females are slightly smaller and lighter: Your head fuselage average length is 57 centimeters, the tail with them is 24 centimeters long, and they weigh six kilograms.

The body of the bag is urged vicious and strong. The front legs are slightly longer than the back legs. The head is short and broad, the teeth are very robust and ideally suited to breaking bones. The coat is black or dark brown, with the exception of a white-throated Fleck and occasional white spots on the trunk. Tasmanian Devil stored body fat in their tails. A sick bag devil is therefore usually in a thin tail visible. When excited, flows of a Tasmanian Devil beißenden smell, which in its unpleasant intensity of the Stinktieres not looks. Hearing and sense of smell are very good, but he looks fairly bad.

A study of bite force in relation to body size has shown that the Tasmanian devil bite the strongest among mammals. It is especially in relation to his body size large head, his jaw so powerful. Tasmanian Devil only have one set of teeth, their entire life on slowly growing.

Dissemination
Tasmanian Devil live today only in Tasmania, the Australian mainland offshore island, which is why they are sometimes known as Tasmanischer devil or Tasmanischer Tasmanian Devil.

Because of fossils finds it is assumed that the only Tasmanian Devil in 14th Century on the Australian continent is extinct. Its extinction is on the competition because of Dingos and hunting by Aborigines returned. Survived the Tasmanian Devil - as some other Raubbeutler also - dingofreien on the island of Tasmania. They could also persecutions by the Europeans as a way to survive, with other Raubbeutlern such as the bag Wolf has led to extinction. In the Pleistocene came another Beutelteufelart (Sarcophilus laniarius) in Australia before, which is about 25% greater than the current Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii).

Habitat and way of life
Tasmanian Devil are almost entirely Tasmania to find and can often viewed as relatively. You use almost all the habitats of the island, and also in the outskirts of cities. Your favorite lounges, but dry forests and forest areas along the coast. It prefers to hunt at night and dusk and spend the day either in dense shrubbery or underground construction. Tasmanian Devil are able to swim. Young Tasmanian Devil can also climb trees, but the animals falls with increasing age is always difficult.

Tasmanian Devil are active during the night, during which they straggle and with the help of their well-developed sense of smell for food. During the day they hide in pits or in the dense scrub. Apart from the mating season, they are loners. The districts have used them sizes between eight and twenty square kilometres. The districts of several animals can be significantly overlap.

Food and food acquisition
Tasmanian Devil are in a position to loot up to the size of a small wallabies to beat, but they are more opportunistic grab prey, the bulk of their prey animals or make verendende Aas. Your food spectrum includes smaller mammals (preferred wombats and other domestic animals, as well as pets like sheep), birds, insects, frogs and reptiles.

The nutrition of the bag devil is variable and depending on what food sources available to him. On average, he per meal about 15 percent of its body weight in food. If he has the opportunity, he is also in the position to within 30 minutes to eat quantities, which is about 40 percent of his body weight.

Tasmanian Devil devour their prey completely - that is, they eat next to the meat and the internal organs and bones and the pelt of a prey animal. Some Tasmanian farmers appreciate why Tasmanian Devil because of their ecological role. The speed at which they remove carcasses, prevent the proliferation of insects, which are otherwise adversely affect the remaining livestock impact.

Although the Tasmanian Devil is a loner, can be up to twelve Tasmanian Devil in a large carcass;. Tasmanian Devil deliver this fierce fighting among themselves and the screaming sounds, which they in these harsh community meals, so over several kilometres perceptible. Studies on the feeding of the Tasmanian Devil have shown that twenty different body postures identify. Even the characteristic aggressive-threatening yawning is a typical behavior characteristics. Eleven different sounds can be identified. The ranking among the animals is usually through sounds and Drohhaltungen. But it is also very often struggles. Adult males are usually the most aggressive. They are regularly marked by scars, the struggles for them in food and sex partners.

Reproduction
Female Tasmanian Devil is in its second year of life and sexually start from this point, to proliferate.

The mating usually takes place in March. The males fight for the brünstigen females, which differs from the dominant males to copulate. To pairing it both at night and during the day. Tasmanian Devil is not in a monogamous females can be of several males to copulate, if not his recent sexual partners to actively prevented.

The development of the embryo lasts 31 days. Tasmanian Devil females take between twenty and thirty completely naked and only restricted bewegungsfähige boy to the world. Each pup weighs only between 0.18 and 0.24 grams Immediately after birth they crawl from the vagina to open the bag to the back of the parent animal. Are they in the bag, attach it to one of the milk glands, where it for the next 100 days remain. Despite the large number of boys, a Tasmanian Devil females usually brings to the world, it has only four milk glands, so that a maximum of four throw young animals grow up. On average it create more females than males, at one of the milk glands to attach. The kittens a litter, which it is not possible to find a mammary gland, are usually eaten by their mother.

Like the Wombat, the mother does not interact with the boys, as the bag is open to the rear. The kittens in the bag are developing very fast. From 15 Day the visible ears, eyelids are on 16 Day and the apparent Tasthaare appear on 17 Day. The lips are on 20 Discernible day. Their coat develop the young animals at 49 days. On 90th Day of life is the fur development. Their eyes open up between the 87th And 93rd Day of life and about the 100th Living day to loosen their hold on the mammary gland. An average of 105 days, after it the way from the vagina to have managed to bag, then leave the 200 grams of these serious young animals. Unlike kangaroos return young Tasmanian Devil is not back in the bag. During the next three months remain in the construction of the mother. The first time they leave between October and December. In January, they then fully independent. Except for the approximately six weeks between the time when their offspring and the independent re-pairing in March, Tasmanian Devil females almost exclusively with reproductive activities.

Inventory growth after the settlement of Tasmania by European settlers
Europeans settled Australia from 1788, and were also down in Tasmania soon. Like the Aborigines ate them Tasmanian Devil, whose taste it with the calf compared. Given that the European settlers were convinced that Tasmanian Devil as a threat to their livestock represented, from 1830 was already an established premium system, the launch of Beutelteufeln rewarded. Over the next hundred years, through hunting and trapping poisoning campaigns, the number of Tasmanian Devil as strongly reduced, that they just stood on the brink of extinction. For their protection was the fact that the last Tasmanian tiger died in 1936. Since 1941, Tasmanian Devil under protection, and its stock recovered.

Current Inventory
Besides hunting have at least two disease epidemics, the number of Tasmanian Devil on Tasmania significantly reduced. The first was held in 1909 and the second 1950. For 1999 we went from 100,000 to 150,000 individuals, which means that each 20 bags devil an area of ten to 20 square kilometres colonize. Tasmania and Australia regulate the export of Beutelteufeln very strict and currently live only in the Copenhagen Zoo Tasmanian Devil outside Australia.

In recent times, however, leads another disease to a drastic decline in population. It is a cancer, from the predominantly facial parts affected.

Tasmanian Devil and humans
The Tasmanian Devil is the symbol animal of the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Services and the Tasmanian football team is called in line with the Devils this animal. The Tasmanian Devil is also one of six in Australia and Tasmania-based animals on the two-hundred-dollar coins were made between 1989 and 1994 were published.

Tasmanian Devil, because of their way of life subject of several documentaries and non-fiction for children. One of the latest Australian documentary with the title of Tasmania was terror by David Parer and Elizabeth Parer-Cook released in 2005. The documentary follows a Tasmanian Devil female called Manganinnie through the mating season, the birth and rearing of boys and deals with the impact of DFTD and protection measures, which the survival of the species to be sure. The documentation was both in North America and in Australia on the National Geographic Channel to see. Also, the two German animal Hans Schweiger and Ernst Arendt (Animals in front of the camera), a film about the Tasmanian devil shot.

The restrictions on the export of Beutelteufeln cause Tasmanian Devil currently, apart from one exception, only in Australia and Tasmania in captivity to see. The Tasmanian government has the Copenhagen Zoo over four animals, as a gift to the birth of the Danish prince Christian, as Christian's mother, Princess Mary, comes from Tasmania. The last previously living outside Australia Tasmanian Devil died in 2004 at the Zoo of Fort Wayne, also DFTD.

Probably the most famous Tasmanian Devil is the figure of the Tasmanian devil in the cartoon series of Looney Tunes. The only similarity between the cartoon character and the real Tasmanian Devil is the appetite of the two.

Tasmanian Devil normally do people not to defend itself but with a strong bite when they are attacked or captured, and can be used for small children to danger.

Read also Thylacine


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