This week, my host university had its mid-semester break, and I opted for a trip to Tasmania. Initially, I knew very little about the island other than its famous inhabitants, the Tasmanian Devil. Before this trip, I had never seen one in real life and only knew about them through the Looney Tunes character and a few photos. I wanted to see if the real-life counterpart lived up to the cartoons, so our group visited a Tasmanian Devil reserve near Cradle Mountain in the heart of Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain National Park.
Upon entering the reserve, the first enclosure we saw was filled with juvenile devils. These devils had all black coats and were about the size of a large house cat. Some were chasing each other throughout the enclosure, and others were basking in the sunlight. Nearby were several enclosures with adult devils. The adults had more white spots across their chests, and were about 25% larger than the juveniles we saw. The adults were also more temperamental. We witnessed several tussles when one devil would get too close to another. During these altercations, the devils would bear a set of very sharp and intimidating teeth and make loud shrieking and grunting sounds, not unlike the beloved cartoon character.
