Tasmanian Devils Have No Right Being This Cute

[Music] deep on one of the most remote islands on the planet lives a creature so evil sounding that when Westerners first heard it howling through the night the only name they could come up with was the devil [Music] this is the fearsome Tasmanian devil [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hi I'm Daniel Defoe and you're watching Animalia logic as I can possibly be on the globe go find some adventure [Music] characterized by its rugged jaw-dropping terrain dynamic landscapes and sparse population Tasmania is a wildlife stronghold but there's one species that rules over the islands tasmania's largest terrestrial carnivore that has meaning in devil they look like a bear mixed with the dog with the pouch of a koala in fact early 19th century scientists referred to Taz YZ as bear devil's due to this superficial resemblance yet despite the resemblance they are marsupials and are more closely related to koalas than bears fuzzy Devils are the largest carnivorous marsupials left in the world there used to be the Tasmanian Tigers aka thylacine but since they've gone extinct these are the next in line but they're in danger too aren't you sweetie around 3,000 years ago Tassie's did roam mainland Australia but they were driven out by dingoes and humans which either hunted them or hunted out their prey causing them to go extinct in the region as King Tut were to have visited Australia he might have seen a devil roaming in the outback here in Tasmania these Devils can still thrive when Europeans first landed in Tasmania at night they heard the ravenous howls of the Tasmanian Devil a sound truly like none other and assumed that it must originate from vicious killing machines hence the name her name is a bit of a misnomer to be honest because these little guys are all about the bluff stress can put on quite a display they'll open their jaws wide and snarl and grunt and make all kinds of noises and that's really where their name came from well they're not as aggressive as they're haunting how will lead you to believe they do have incredibly powerful bites Tasmanian devils have the strongest bite relative to body size among mammals and can easily crush bone their heads are huge relative to their body size and they have large muscular jaws their skulls bear striking resemblance to another bone crusher the hyena they need these powerful jaws because when they eat they consume the entire animal meat bones send you everything their bites exude a force of 553 Newtons crushing bones with their molars and tearing flesh with their giant incisors they can open their mouths up to 80 degrees allowing them to take bites as big as possible now see Devils are scavengers they get most of the nutrition they need from finding dead animals but they will also supplement that by finding other small vertebrates and the occasional bugs if they can carrion makes up the largest portion of their diet and they need their bone crushing jaws to eat all the parts of the carcass deemed unappetizing by other scavengers and predators with Tasmania being the roadkill capital of the world the eating can be good so long as they don't themselves turn into roadkill so as a rule Tasmanian Devils don't like company while they are solitary creatures a meal is what brings them all together Desi's are primarily nocturnal when the Sun Goes Down the Devils come out to eat there are usually between five and twelve Devils within range of one another and in a surprising act of kindness their devilish howls draw their fellow Taz's to the scene of the crime the Devils pour out of the night and descend onto their meal howls echo through the night they go into a feeding frenzy ripping and tearing at flesh as quickly as possible between the yelps the sound of bone snapping and flesh tearing fills the air the dominant males eat first and make it their choice of the softest and tastiest meat like the eyes and innards the smaller Devils will have to settle for the less desirable Vic's like the tails and feet but they don't go down without a fight and dinnertime proves to be a good time for smaller males to prove themselves [Applause] fearless this male fed up with having to eat the scraps decides to challenge the dominant male he lunges snapping at the bigger male with his sharp incisors the two males collide trying to puncture each other's necks but the larger male doesn't back down with his bulk and larger teeth the Challenger has a little chance he did his best but with blood dripping from his face he'll have to settle for the tail after all dinner is a dangerous affair this battle may be over but the fighting will continue Tasmanian Devils have no chill they will continue snapping at each other trying to usurp the pecking order until the carcass is gone Devils walk away from feeding almost as bloody as their prey by adulthood tessie's become heavily scarred from battle looking more and more like their namesake with the passing years no I've seen this entire feeding and they've eaten this entire corpse in about 30 minutes flat there's nothing left now but a few bones and skin because when you're a scavenger you don't know when your next meal will be so you have to rely on eating as much as you can while you still can the Devils are ravenous and will devour every part of a carcass leaving nothing but bloodstains on the ground and howls in the air would you believe that these scrappy little guys behind me are actually tasmania's largest predator they might be small in regards to what we're used to in North America with some rather large predators but here in Tasmania everything's a little bit smaller and dwarfism is most often found on Islands because there's less resources less space to claim territories and just less room to grow while their size certainly contributes to their cute charm so does their gait you may have noticed that they look funny when they run this is because their four limbs are longer than their hind limbs this is unusual in the animal world but they have these long four limbs to help them climb the trees in Tasmania are often very twisted and low to the ground that works in their favor because they don't like one too high juvenile Devils in particular are good at climbing because they're often targeted by hungry adult males and escaping into the trees is a handy trick not only are they good climbers but they're quite adept swimmers too Tao Zi Devils will swim when they need to cross rivers in their territory but they also love hanging out in the water they'll often wait outs just to splash around or to lay down in shallow water in order to cool off and relax who knew that Tazi Devils liked swimming males are slightly larger than the females and in the wild they will weigh about six kilograms their main fat reservoir is actually located in their tails and a plunk tail is a sign of a healthy Tazzy these cute little pink ears are her tools for thermoregulation Tazi devils don't really have many sweat glands so in order to try and exude some heat they'll pump blood through those ears they'll turn a bright pinkish red color through that they'll be able to reduce their body temperature Tezz news live fast and furious lives living to only 5 years of age in the wild it's an intense ride a mother taozi Devils pregnancy only lasts about 21 days after which gives birth to 18 to 30 young but she only has four teats so only four lucky individuals get to latch on and grow the surviving pups will stay with their mum for three months after they leave the pouch becoming independent in the summer these youngsters are all playing chase but it's really training for them to become more territorial defending their dens defending their young and most importantly defending their food at two years of age they become sexually mature and their mating process is even more hardcore than their birthing process females will mate once a year the male's will fight each other for not only mating rights but also for the privilege to hang around her preventing other males from mating with her as well adult female Tasmanian devils need to put on quite a bit of weight in order to enjoy the process of mating because it's quite a brutal endeavor putting on weight helps defend them from the attacks of the male who unfortunately does have to force himself on the female because they are not receptive even in estrus putting on weight gives them a little bit of buffer in order to withstand those attacks the mating process itself is rather horrific it looks like a battle and females can die during the process while having such short lives doesn't sound great it might actually be helping the species as a whole survived in 1996 a disease called facial tumour disease started spreading like wildfire among the Tazi devils and unfortunately it has decimated about 90% of the populations all across Tasmania in essence devil facial tumour disease or DFTD is a cancer of Schwann cells which are fundamental parts of the peripheral nervous system facial tumour disease is one of the only communicable cancers known to science the disease starts as a growth around the mouth as it spreads through their bodies it pushes their teeth out from their mouths making it impossible for them to eat starving them to death the disease will also grow into their joints bones and will cause mass organ failure it also decimates their immune system making them vulnerable to other diseases it spreads quickly through populations and can completely eliminate an entire local population of devils in under a year the reason that spreads so quickly is that it's transmissible through bites and biting each other when competing for food and mates is a natural part of a Tassie's life symptoms may not always appear right away and young devils may get it without presenting they can pass it to others and before we can do anything the entire population will have been eliminated Tasmanian Devils were expected to go extinct by 2011 but thanks to conservation efforts here on Tasmania they are still hanging on aren't you little guy there is a vaccine but it is only effective against one strain of the disease and there are many in 2015 just five devils were successfully treated fortunately it's quite possible that the devils will be able to beat this disease naturally since their generations are so short they can quickly adapt to circumstances like these doubles that have genes that make them immune to the disease are becoming more and more common scientists now believe that there is a 57% chance that the devils will be able to coexist with a disease but that doesn't mean we're not trying to help the odds young Tassie devils were born and conservation like this one are what's called an insurance population they'll carry the genetic diversity that might eventually repopulate the entire island for those houses that are lucky enough to be real wild 'add it's always considered what genes are being released into what areas to maintain that genetic diversity one of the most ambitious captive release programs was on an island off the east coast of Tasmania with no roads electricity or permanent residents moriah island serves as the perfect site for Tazi devils in 2012 15 captive raised disease-free Devils were released onto the island and since their release their population has dried today there are over a hundred Devils living healthy two or three lives on the islands various since then seventeen devils have been returned to the mainland in hopes of passing their stronger genes on to the next generation [Music] so what should I talk about next please let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes of Animal Logic every week thanks for watching the Homo sapiens is the largest animal in Moriah ila sometimes the longest work it's not the bench [Music]

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 964,648

Rating: 4.9375615 out of 5

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, show, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, animalsfacts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, fun, easy, smart, tasmanian devil, devil, tasmanian tiger, australia, thylacine, endangered, taz, honey badger, wolverine, honey badger of australia, teeth, bite, devil facial tumor disease, island, carnivore, scavenger, tasmania, maria island, bite force, strongest bite, vs, powerful bite, looney tunes, don’t care

Id: 8KS5qqhwya4

Length: 17min 21sec (1041 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020