A glimmer of hope for Devil

Tasmanial devils, the world’s largest marsupial carnivore, is threatened with extinction by the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor diseases (DFTD). At this moment, DFTD could be confirmed in 59 percents of Tasmania and Tasmanian devils have decreased by 53 percents in sighting since DFTD had appeared in 1996. In fact, some scientists expect that devils would die out in the near future, probably within a decade or two unless some interventions were developed.

However, a glimmer of hope was appeared. Last year, two Tasmanian devil, Cedric and his half-brother Clinky, were injected with dead facial tumor cell by scientists and as a result, Cedric could produce antibodies. This would indicate Cedric has different genetic composition as his brother and it is unaffected by disease or able to respond for a vaccine. This makes scientists find other wild devils which have same genetic make up as Cedric.

And in this year, ABC news reported that scientists found similar DNA as Cedric which seems resistant to diseases in a group of captured devils known as the “special six”. One of the members of the Save the devils Program’s Professor Hamish McCallum also suggests that around 10 to 20 percents of the animals in the west side of Tasmania may have those genes. If those devils and Cedric remain unsusceptible to the disease after the injection of dead facial tumor cell, then those animals would be able to use for some breeding programs to disperse discerning genes to a new generation of devils.

Written by Yuichiro Yoshida

Primary source

Kirkman, J. (2007). Save the Tasmanian devil. Retrieved from Tasmania Devil Program: Viewed 28 May 2008, Available at <>

Mercer, P. (2008) Hope over Tasmanian devil cancer. BBC News 2008 Apr 1. Viewed at 28 May 2008, Available at <>

Australian Broadcasting Corporation, (2008). ‘Special’ DNA could save Tasmania’s devils. Viewed at 28 May 2008, Available at

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Secondary sources

Holtcamp, W. Tasmania’s Devil of a problem, viewed at 28 May 2008, Available at

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