- MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Movie
studio Warner Bros., which earned million of dollars from its Tasmanian
devil cartoon character "Taz," has now been asked to help save
his real-life cousins in Australia that are being decimated by facial cancer.
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- Tasmanian devils on Australia's southern island state
of Tasmania, the only place where these carnivorous marsupials are found
in the wild, are being wiped out, with grossly disfigured animals dying
within months of contracting the disease.
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- Environmentalists have approached the Hollywood studio
to help raise funds to battle the disease, which has probably killed between
a third and a half of the Tasmanian devil population in the past five to
10 years. Only about 70,000 to 80,000 remain.
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- "We are in discussions with the folks in Tasmania
to see what we might be able to do to help," Warner Bros. spokeswoman
Barbara Brogliatti told Reuters.
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- Tasmanian wildlife biologist Nick Mooney fears there
is little that can be done to stop the spread of the cancer.
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- "It is likely that in another five years that 80
percent or more of the state population or more will have been affected
and there is probably nothing we can do about that," he said.
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- SPINE-CHILLING SCREECHES
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- The mostly black, nocturnal marsupial, which grows to
about the size of a small stocky dog, gets its name from its snarls and
spine-chilling screeches, fierce displays and powerful jaws that can crunch
through the bones of other animals.
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- It was named by European settlers who arrived 200 years
ago in Tasmania, an island of about 27,200 square miles, a bit more than
a quarter the size of the United Kingdom and with about 478,000 people.
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- International fame for the devil arrived after it appeared
in a 1954 Warner Bros. cartoon where Bugs Bunny was warned: "The Tasmanian
Devil is on the loose. Run, run, run for your life."
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- The devil was so popular that the spinning, voracious
"Taz" that eats "tigers, lions, elephants, buffaloes, donkeys,
giraffes, octopuses, rhinoceroses, moose, ducks ... and rabbits" went
on to become a cartoon regular for Warner Bros, now part of Time Warner
Inc.
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- But the real-life Tasmanian devil is nothing like his
famous on-screen cousin.
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- Zoologist Chris Coupland, at the Mole Creek Trowunna
Wildlife Park in northern Tasmania, said the real devil is all bluff. Tourists
are surprised by its small size, he said, and that they can enter a devil
enclosure and not be torn limb from limb.
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- "They have quite a high level of intelligence and
recognition and the ones we handle are friendly," Coupland said.
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- "The cartoon character does not represent the animal
in its true light. It has lifted the profile of the Tasmanian devil. It
is a very famous animal."
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- DIE FROM STARVATION
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- Early signs of Devil Facial Tumor Disease, which scientists
say could be a form of retrovirus, include small lesions and lumps that
are similar to injuries scavenging devils inflict on each other as they
squabble over carcasses.
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-
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- But in its later stages large and sometimes grotesque
tumors can develop. Animals appear to die from starvation and the breakdown
of bodily functions within three to five months.
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- "This disease is pretty hideous," Mooney said.
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- Devil numbers have crashed and recovered in the past,
rebounding to numbers Mooney estimated at around 150,000 by the early 1990s
and raising some hopes that the new problem may be another turn in a natural
population control cycle.
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- Researchers are monitoring the spread of the disease
while scientists work to identify its causes, diagnosing it early so as
to quarantine populations.
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- Past disease experiences suggest the cancer may not wipe
out all the devils, but lower numbers would leave them vulnerable to extinction
from other threats.
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- BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
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- The devil's decline opens the door for the spread of
European red foxes into Tasmania, which could threaten a prolific range
of less well-known wildlife that has thrived in relative seclusion on the
island state.
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- Foxes have caused environmental destruction on the Australian
mainland since their introduction for hunting in the 1850s. It is believed
devils have acted as a buffer, stopping them taking hold in Tasmania.
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- "That is what makes this disease episode far more
alarming than it would otherwise be," Mooney said. "This is the
perfect chance for foxes to get going and create mayhem."
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- The fox threat even has unsentimental Tasmanian farmers
on the side of the devil, which they once cursed as a threat to lambs and
poultry and which they trapped and poisoned before it was declared a protected
species in 1941.
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- Farmers say they prefer the devil, which has a role cleaning
up the carcasses of dead animals, to the more destructive fox.
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- Warwick Brennan, spokesman for the Tasmanian Department
of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, said the impact of devil
facial tumor disease had been a shock to many in the community.
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- "It has really shaken people because it was thought
to be secure. In some ways it is a species you take for granted. It is
part of Tasmania's culture," he said.
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