AR-News: (AU) Devils fall victim to a hellish disease

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

By Andrew Darby
March 6, 2004


 
Wildlife officer Nick Mooney with one of the infected Tasmanian devils. 
Picture: Andrew Darby 
He's called 3AB. "Some are crazy bastards," said wildlife officer Nick 
Mooney. "Some are slugs." It seems 3AB is among the latter. As Tasmanian devils go, 
he's more a snorer than a whirlwind.

The door of a tube trap lies open and 3AB stares out dozily. Not the sort of 
behaviour one would expect of the marsupial with the ghastly howl, a predator 
strong enough to pull down and kill larger animals.

A 9.1-kilogram male, he is about four years old. His weight-for-age is good, 
and there's a healthy fat layer. In his scat are tufts of wombat hair. He 
should be in his prime but, as Mr Mooney lifts him out of the plastic tube, it's 
clear he isn't.

He is called 3AB because he is a Three Abscess Boy. A disease is coursing 
through Tasmanian devils, and 3AB clearly has it.





full story:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/05/1078464637658.html 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040305/1461a5f1/attachment.html