Tasmanian devil; Tring Zoological Museum; 30th December 2010

Tasmanian devil; Tring Zoological Museum; 30th December 2010
31-12-2010

28-01-2012

that's the skinniest devil mount I've ever seen! If the head was covered I wouldn't have had a clue what animal it was supposed to be!

29-01-2012

Very un-lifelike. Lacking the 'top-heavy' head and shoulders and low-slung appearance, plus pretty faded too.

29-01-2012

It doesn't look like a 'typical' Tasmanian devil. Aren't they more a darker colour?

29-01-2012

they are. As Pertinax said it is very very faded (as old museum specimens are wont to do)

30-01-2012

I would have thought a marten or fisher or something similar. As it was, when I saw the thuimbnail I thought "badly stuffed wolverine".

Maybe this is where Warner Bros got their idea for a brown Tasmanian Devil for the cartoons - in the life they're black.



Hix

30-01-2012

Yep. They are black apart from the white crescent on the chest. A huge head and shoulders and weak little hindquarters. Look a bit like toads!

31-01-2012

It seems odd for me to think that people haven't seen Devils at London, then I have to remember that they left the collection over 20 years ago..

31-01-2012

I am somewhat surprised that my Tasmanian devil photograph has generated so many comments.

I agree, of course, that this specimen is poorly mounted and very faded. Nevertheless, I thought it was an interesting shot as it gave a good view of the teeth.

Like the majority of specimens in this fascinating museum, I assume that this one is very old. I don’t know when this particular specimen was acquired but Lord Walter Rothschild, who founded the museum, died in 1937 and most of the museum’s display material was obtained decades before his death.

It's a long while since I last saw a living Tasmanian devil. I've seen the species many times at London Zoo and also several times elsewhere (Cologne, Rotterdam, Los Angeles); unfortunately, I doubt I'll see one again in the near future, unless I make a trip to Copenhagen.

31-01-2012

It is interesting that they are so rare in the zoo world. There was one in San Diego in the fairly recent past (less than 10 years ago). I wonder why there are so few? With the disease crisis threatening them in the wild this seems like a species that zoos could genuinely serve as a backup population for.

Do they not do well in captivity outside of Australia in terms of longevity and/or not reproducing?

31-01-2012

The book "Longevity of Mammals in Captivity" (Richard Weigl; 2005) lists the following longevity records for this species:-

(i) Male at Rotterdam Zoo from 4th July 1981 until it died on 20th August 1993

(ii) Male at Rotterdam Zoo from 4th July 1981 until 14th November 1991 when it was sent to Singapore, where it died 6th May 1992

I must have seen both of these animals several times on visits to Rotterdam Zoo during the 1980s.

31-01-2012

devils have very short life spans (naturally), so it has been hard for foreign zoos to keep their populations going. Some are currently kept in Denmark because their prince married a Tasmanian girl and so Australia sent them some over (probably the first time Tasmanian devils have been a wedding gift ). These are the only ones outside Australia at the moment.

There are zoo holdings in Australia being bred as disease-free insurance populations.

31-01-2012

The only TD I remember seeing was at Toronto Zoo in 2000 -......maybe the last one in North America? and last outside Australia besides the Copenhagen pair?

I visited Perth Zoo many times in the mid to late 70s as a child but don't remember seeing any there - although it is possible they did have some, maybe in the nocturnal house?

01-02-2012

Throwing this out (and I'm sure I'm not the first to do so from Europe or North America) how would Australasian chatters feel about a large scale exchange of stock, ticking all the numerous bureaucratic checks, that took animals like Devils, Bilbies and Tuatara (say) out in exchange for some of the ungulates and birds (such as flamingoes) that are on the point of extinction in captivity in Australia and New Zealand?

Has anyone ever heard of attempts to do this?

01-02-2012

Zoochatters would love it. The zoos would no doubt love it. But unfortunately its not the zoos that decide things like that.