Unbelievably tonight we saw a wild Tasmanian devil at the side of the road just outside the town of Bicheno. When planning the holiday I had no expectation what-so-ever of finding a wild individual for myself because they are nocturnal and have become so rare these days. The irony was that when we saw it we were returning to our campsite from an organised trip to see the species which had disappointingly turned out to be not much more than feeding time at the zoo. Nothing was wild and the devil's were fed a shot wallaby. Quite interesting but also a bit gruesome.
Tassie devils have declined by around 90% over the past few years due to a highly contagious facial cancer and this zoo is one of several around Tasmania which is trying to keep a cancer free population while scientists look for a cure, so in that respect they're doing a great job and more power to them. However it wasn't really for me, watching a wallaby being torn to pieces by a pack of devils with no table manners whilst we looked on and were served cheese and wine, almost like Romans at the Colosseum. Following that experience I can't say that they are my favourite animal but I guess if you watch a pack of wild dogs or cats feed that's not too pleasant either. However to see a truly wild individual was just fantastic and it will live long in the memory.
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