Cancer and cars threaten wild Tasmanian devils

TASMAN PENINSULA, Australia — Drive over one narrow isthmus in Tasmania, and then another, and you’ll reach the last place on Earth where wild Tasmanian devils live apart from a contagious cancer that threatens the fearsome marsupials’ existence.

Devil-proof barriers, flashing roadside alarms and infrared cameras are protecting the species from their two greatest threats: cancer and cars.

“Saving the wild devils on the Tasman Peninsula is the Holy Grail of the whole thing — can we save a natural, wild population of devils and isolate them?” said John Hamilton, a major partner in the Peninsula Devil Conservation Project.

The muscle-bound, lumbering, bear-like predator-scavenger with a ferocious growl — the inspiration for the Warner Bros. cartoon character Taz — is endangered because of a mysterious disease that has slashed its numbers in Tasmania’s wilderness by as much as 90 percent since it was discovered two decades ago.

Forestier Peninsula is attached to the Tasmanian mainland by another narrow tract of land near the town of Dunalley called East Bay Neck, which forms another buffer for disease-free devils.

Hamilton said the captive-born devils were “a bit naive,” and zoologists agree that captive breeding is a setback for young devils’ development of hunting and survival skills.