Marsupial Spotlight: Tasmanian Devil

When I first saw a picture of the Tasmanian devil, I thought I was looking at a picture of a baby bear. On close inspection, there are some important differences. Apparently, I am not the first person to see this similarity though, so I did not feel too bad about it.

The Tasmanian devil can only be found in the Australian island of--of course--Tasmania. They are EVERYWHERE on this island, and despite being secluded to this one place in the world, there is no concern that these marsupials will go extinct. Physically, this animal has a body length of 22 inches and a tail length of 9.6 inches. The tail is interesting in and of itself as you shall find out soon.

I can assume anyone reading this is just bouncing in their seat waiting for me to get to the fiction portion of this blog, but you'll just have to wait. We all know where this is going to end up, but I think you may find the real Tasmanian devil to be a little different than expected. The first thing people think when they hear the name "devil" when referencing an animal usually has to do with heavy aggression. Well, Tasmanian devils are carnivores and they are very violent when it comes to killing their prey. They have to be if they want to eat. But what about with humans?

Surprisingly, these so-called devils are rather docile around humans. They will stand very still in the human's presence and shake nervously if the person approaches them. The devil turns into a kitten when it comes to humans, but I would still not try to pet it. A lot of the misconceptions about the Tasmanian devils came from old Aborigine lore. It was later disproved by the scientific community, and the species have been studied under different perceptions ever since.

As I said before, the Tasmanian devil is a carnivore. They really are not that picky about what kind of meat they eat. They will go after anything that can't capably fight back. They will also eat roadkill when given the opportunity. It is a common sight to see a number of Tasmanian devils eating off of one corpse, but that does not mean that they run in packs. These marsupials are actually loners, but there are so many of them in Tasmania that they often will bump into each other. Hey, at least they are polite about it. These animals have whiskers all over their face and head which helps them keep a safe eating distance away from one of the other feeders. Although loners, they were designed to live together anyways. Isn't that interesting?

Now, about their tails: All of the Tasmanian devil's body fat gets routed into its tail. That means that if one of them is getting a lot to eat, he will have a very fat tail. If he is being overfed, he has to drag the silly thing around. I think this is actually pretty funny, and I don't really know of a similar example found in any other animal.

In fiction, I think that everyone in the world has heard of Taz. Formerly known as simply "The Tasmanian Devil," Taz was first featured in ONLY five Loony Tunes shorts from 1954 to 1964. He was known for being absolutely the poster-child for chaos and violence and would spin himself like a mini tornado causing havoc with everything he touched--a sharp contrast to the real animal. His fame really picked up when the old cartoons began to appear in reruns on TV, and then he became a staple in the Loony Tunes cast of characters. In 1991, the world was introduced to the television show "Taz-Mania." This was really Taz's big break. They gave him a family and added a rather interesting extended cast of Australia-based characters. The show was very good. His family was entirely in contrast to him. They were civil and calm but they still accepted their crazy son regardless of his wild behavior and primitive form of speech.

I particularly loved the part of the father who was named Hugh. He was the most relaxed character in the whole show. He had a way of saying things that would just make you laugh. He was voiced by comedian Maurice LaMarche who in his own right is a very funny man. On the topic of voices, Taz was voiced by none other than Jim Cummings who was one of the voice-actor greats of the day.

As popular as Taz is in fiction, he does not represent the real deal. The phrase "together but alone" comes to mind when I think of these creatures as people. They are simply anti-social despite having to live together. You see something similar happen with humans in large American cities. They live in great bunches, but at the end of the day, they don't acknowledge each other. Isn't that fascinating? Based on the marsupial's reactions to humans, I see them as very shy. They don't really want trouble. They simply want to live peaceably with their environment.

Although not like the creature we knew from cartoons, the Tasmanian devil still has a personality that is fascinating. It shall go down in the marsupial hall of fame purely on the basis of a misconception, but what is wrong with that? It just goes to show you what the imagination can bring to the world.

Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoyed it, you can comment below, or you can email me at tooie@tooiekangaroo.com. Taz hungry!