Tasmanian Devil: A Unique and Threatened Animal

Capa
Allen & Unwin, 2005 - 225 páginas
This is the first book published on the animal that has the distinction of being the world's largest marsupial carnivore, and is packed with information that has never been accessible to the general reader. The story of the Tasmanian devil is a remarkable one - surprising, controversial, funny and tragic.
 

Conteúdo

Introduction
1
Beelzebubs pup a reappraisal of the Tasmanian devil
7
Evolution and extinction
30
Relationships in the wild
43
Made for travelling rough devil ecology
63
Devils and Europeans 18031933
78
In the matter of the Society and the Board
98
From Antichrist to ambassador
116
In captivity
130
The spinning animal from Tasmania
143
Owning the devil Tasmania and Warner Bros
157
Devil Facial Tumour Disease
168
Notes
197
Select bibliography
212
Index
215
Direitos autorais

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Página 79 - These animals were very common on our first settling at Hobart Town, and were particularly destructive to poultry, &c. They, however, furnished the convicts with a fresh meal, and the taste was said to be not unlike veal. As the settlement increased, and the ground became cleared, they were driven from their haunts near the town to the deeper recesses of forests yet unexplored.
Página 207 - He does not mind going a hundred miles to breakfast, and a hundred and fifty to dinner, because he is sure to have three or four days between meals, and he can just as well be traveling and looking at the scenery as lying around doing nothing and adding to the burdens of his parents.
Página 79 - In a state of confinement, they appear to be untameably savage ; biting severely, and uttering at the same time a low yelling growl. A male and female, which I kept for a couple of months chained together in an empty cask, were continually fighting ; their quarrels began as soon as it was dark (as they slept all day), and continued throughout the night almost without intermission, accompanied with a kind of hollow barking, not unlike a dog...
Página 80 - ... couple of months chained together in an empty cask, were continually fighting; their quarrels began as soon as it was dark (as they slept all day), and continued throughout the night almost without intermission, accompanied by a kind of hollow barking, not unlike that of a dog, and sometimes a sudden kind of snorting, as if the breath was retained a considerable time, and then suddenly expelled.
Página 79 - ... forests yet unexplored. They are, however, easily procured by setting a trap in the most unfrequented parts of the woods, baited with raw flesh, all kinds of which they eat indiscriminately and voraciously; they also, it is probable, prey on dead fish, blubber, &c. as their tracks are frequently found on the sands of the sea shore. In a state of confinement, they appear to be untameably savage ; biting severely, and uttering at the same time a low yelling growl.
Página 95 - ... they have given me. Description of specimen. — The specimen was a full-growi> female, with three fairly advanced young in the pouch. All had been dead for two days. The pouch-young were fixed entire in corrosive- sublimate- acetic-solution, the genital organs of the mother in picro-sulpliuric solution. In this latter case, on sectioning, it was found that what blood there was in the vessels had hardened so much, that it was only with extreme care and difficulty that sections could be cut at...
Página 80 - ... sudden kind of snorting, as if the breath was retained a considerable time, and then suddenly expelled. The female generally conquered. They frequently sat on their hind parts, and used their fore paws to convey food to their mouths. The muscles of their jaws were very strong, as they cracked the largest bones with ease asunder; and many of their actions, as well as their gait, strikingly resembled those of the bear.
Página 88 - ... attacked her and would drag her back by the ear, or any other part, but although otherwise cruel, he would carry food in to her. When I called her, it was pitiable to hear her whining; but it was of no avail, for Billy was a relentless tyrant and kept her in strict seclusion for quite ten or twelve days; then early in May he allowed her to be free once more.
Página 147 - My young, beautiful, impatient mother, with the itch to live — perhaps too much like my own — was a tempest about my ears, as I about hers. Our war deepened so that a time came when it was a matter of indifference to me whether I saw her or not...
Página 147 - Occasionally I went with him on a trip in quest of one of the rare Tasmanian animals. We headed for the western coast, a difficult terrain, where there were huge fossilised trees. We hunted the Tasmanian tiger, an animal so rare it took Father four years to trap one.

Referências a este livro

The Marsupial Order
Rebecca Stefoff
Visualização parcial - 2008

Sobre o autor (2005)

David Owen is a Hobart-based writer of fiction and non-fiction for all mediums. He was born in 1956. His credits are 15 published books, which include literary novels and the acclaimed Pufferfish detective fiction series set in Tasmania. David edited Island magazine for five years and was the director of publishing for Quintus Publishing at the University of Tasmania. His popular series of non-fiction books include: Thylacine, the Tragic tale of the Tasmanian Tiger; Shark, in Peril in the Sea; and Tasmanian Devil, a Unique and Threatened Animal. In 1998, his love story novel Bitters End was adapted as a feature film. David was the story and script consultant for the project. David is the Official Secretary, Office of the Governor, Tasmania. His most recent publication was 13 Point Plan for a Perfect Murder, which was the seventh release in the Pufferfish series, and was published by Fullers Publishing in August 2016. David Owenis the editor of the Australian literary journalIsland. He is the author of nine novels andThylacine: The Tragic Tale of the Tasmanian Tiger.David Pembertonis the Vertebrate Curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

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