Saving Tasmanian Devils may lead to cancer treatments

Cartoonist Robert McKimson pegged parts of the Tasmanian Devil’s character pretty much square on when he created Taz for Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes series. Although the cartoon creature walked on two legs instead of four and acted like a snarky teenager, he shared a voracious appetite and scrappy behavior with the carnivorous Australian marsupial.

Another thing he shared was the threat of extinction. Taz first appeared in his own movie in 1954 but pretty much disappeared a decade later. Then in the 1990s he scored a three-season show on TV.

Maybe the real Tasmanian Devil will also score a comeback. The fierce little guy was declared an endangered species in 2009, after a decade of decline because of a facial cancer spreading through the population.

I first saw one at Cleland Wildlife Park in South Australia and was surprised an animal with such a wild reputation was so small. They were once common in Australia, but the wild population is now found only in the island state of Tasmania. Scientists believe they were wiped out on the mainland by dingoes brought over by settlers.

Now there’s new hope for the devils, in spite of an inexplicable strain of cancer that has wiped out 80% of the population on Tasmania. Unlike other cancers, this one is contagious. Hoping to find a cure, University of Tasmania researchers injected two related devils with the cancer. One of them developed tumors, but the other one, Cedric, proved immune to several of the cancer strains. The difference between the two half brothers was the genetic contribution of parents from different areas.

While scientists from Australia and the U.S. are collaborating on gene sequencing to save the Tasmanian Devil, they are making discoveries that may offer insight into human cancers. Dr. Vanessa Hayes of the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia says, “We are opening the doors for other cancer researchers, who we will hope will benefit significantly from this research.”

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Photo by Cathryn Wellner

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Tamara A.

6:42PM PDT on Jul 24, 2011

Maybe scientist can use their own mothers and children on experimentation. "An eye for an eye" After all animals have their own families too. If it's someone's turn to die,then it is their turn to die >>> and that is God's will not ours to command.

send a green star

Grace A.

11:24AM PDT on Jul 20, 2011

There is a virus that can cause cancer in both women and female mice. Maybe our scientists can try working on a vaccine against it.

11:22AM PDT on Jul 20, 2011

Debbie L.

7:23AM PDT on Jul 17, 2011

Aw, poor Taz. I hope they find something soon that could help the whole population.

Christina V.

9:36PM PDT on Jul 16, 2011

Cathryn, I would suggest that you re-read the article from which you have misquoted. No "settlers" ever took dingoes to Tasmania! They are a native dog and were seen as vermin by white farmers, hence, hunted and killed. The article states that the dingoe may have been an element in the extintion of the THYLACINE, because of its more efficient hunting skills. The facial cancers from which the Tassie Devil (not TAZ) suffers is endemic: it is presumed to be a viral cancer, because it is spread by contact during fighting. The use of 1080 in Tamanian forest is a contentious issue; it has been previously used to kill and eradicate non-native species such as wild dogs (not dingoes) wild cats and eagles. In Tasmania it is used to kill native browsing animals

Nicola R.

10:21PM PDT on Jul 15, 2011

It is wrong to inject the Tasmanian Devils with carcinogens and use them as slaves for humans to develop cancer medicine. The animals are equally valuable to humans. They don't deserve to be treated like that. On top of all they are an endangered species. But all animals deserve to be protected from harm like carcinogens. The medical industry has grown out of proportion so much that they have such a powerful lobby which pays their way through politics, government, and society. They pay for cancer commericals on TV and other brain washing techniques in public broadcasting to get people to believe in pharma medicine and not any more into their own healing abilities. They have lawyers and they sabotage herbal medicine. Johnson has a YouTube channel on which they blocked me because I was talking about herbs. The truth is that particularly fresh and wild plants have healing characteristics which by far outweigh the medicinal value of pharmaceutical medicine. The key is to get good herb books about your local medicinal plants.

Randall S.

1:54PM PDT on Jul 14, 2011

I think they deserve to be saved from extinction. Okay, so they may not be the sweetest, cutest, or loveable creatures, but . . . I know a lot of people who fit that description, and if they have a right to live then so should Tasmanian Devils.

Judith C.

3:53PM PDT on Jul 13, 2011

I hope they find a cure but to deliberatily inject cancer into an endangered spieces which results in their deaths just seems a bit counter productive

3:50PM PDT on Jul 13, 2011

So Tazmanian devils are endangered and scientists are injecting some with cancer? Can they not just use some tissue in a lab rather than live animals?

Katherine W.

8:53AM PDT on Jul 12, 2011

We cannot allow another species to become endangered and extinct. We've already lost too many species to human greed and indifference.