Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii): Facts and Diet

What does a Tasmanian devil look like?

A Tasmanian devil is built like a small, muscular bear. It has a broad, heavy head, a short thick neck, a barrel-shaped body and short legs. The fur is coarse and mostly black. Many devils carry a white band or crescent across the chest and white patches on the rump or sides, although roughly one in six wild devils has no white markings at all.

The ears are rounded, pink on the inside and thinly furred. When a devil is excited or stressed, more blood flows to the ears and they can look bright red, one of the reasons early settlers found the animal so unsettling. The snout is pinkish, with long whiskers on the face and head that help the devil feel its way and sense other devils in the dark.

The front legs are slightly longer than the back legs, which is unusual for a marsupial and gives the devil a rocking, shuffling walk. The tail stores fat, so a thick tail is a sign of a healthy, well-fed animal. A scent gland at the base of the tail leaves a strong, musky smell on the ground behind it.

How big is a Tasmanian devil?

Tasmanian devils are about the size of a small, stocky dog. Males are clearly larger and heavier than females, and devils in western Tasmania tend to be smaller than those in the east.

The devil became the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial after the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, died out; the last known thylacine died in a Hobart zoo in 1936. Fossils show that an extinct relative on the mainland, Sarcophilus laniarius, was somewhat larger than today’s devils.

Habitat and range

Today wild Tasmanian devils live only in Tasmania, including Robbins Island off the northwest coast. They once lived across mainland Australia, but disappeared there roughly 3,000 to 3,500 years ago. Scientists still debate why; suggested causes include competition with the dingo, a growing human population and a drying climate.

Devils use almost every habitat on the island, from coastal heath and scrub to farmland and the edges of towns. They are most common in dry eucalyptus forest and open woodland in the low to moderate rainfall zones of the east and northwest, and scarcer in the wet buttongrass plains of the southwest and on the highest mountains.

During the day a devil rests in a den: an old wombat burrow, a cave, a hollow log or a thick patch of vegetation. Each animal uses several dens and moves between them every few days. Old wombat burrows are especially valued by mothers raising young.

Since 2012, disease-free devils have also lived on Maria Island off Tasmania’s east coast as an insurance population, and in 2020 a group of 26 adults was released into a large fenced sanctuary run by the conservation group Aussie Ark at Barrington Tops in New South Wales, the first devils on the mainland in thousands of years.

What do Tasmanian devils eat?

Tasmanian devils are carnivores that eat mainly carrion, the meat of animals that are already dead. Their most common foods are wallabies, pademelons, wombats, possums and rabbits, many of them found as roadkill or the remains of other predators’ meals. They also hunt live prey when they can, including small mammals, birds, frogs, reptiles and insects, and they will eat fish washed up on beaches.

Devils find food mainly by smell and hearing, traveling several kilometers a night along tracks, creek banks and roads. Their powerful jaws let them eat almost everything: meat, skin, fur and bones. Scientists estimate that a devil eats about 15% of its body weight a day on average, but it can gulp down up to about 40% of its weight in half an hour when food is plentiful.

For more detail on scavenging, hunting and communal feasts, see what Tasmanian devils eat.

How strong is a Tasmanian devil’s bite?

Relative to its body size, the Tasmanian devil has one of the strongest bites of any living meat-eating mammal. A widely cited 2005 comparison of bite force against body mass gave the devil a higher score than lions, tigers and hyenas. In absolute terms its bite is much weaker than a big cat’s, but the jaws open very wide, to about 75–80 degrees, and the heavy head and neck muscles give it enough power to crush bone.

Like hyenas, devils have broad, strong cheek teeth for cracking bones, a good example of unrelated animals evolving similar tools for a similar job. See our ranking of the strongest bite force in the animal kingdom for comparisons.

Behavior and communication

Tasmanian devils are mostly nocturnal, with a peak of activity around dusk and dawn. Young devils are more active in the early evening, and adults may bask in the sun near their dens on quiet days. Each devil has a home range that typically covers about 4–27 km² (1.5–10 sq mi). Ranges overlap widely, and devils are not territorial except around their dens.

Devils usually live alone, but they often meet at carcasses, where up to about a dozen animals may gather. These feasts are loud. Researchers have described around 20 body postures and 11 kinds of sounds used at carcasses, including growls, snarls, clicks and the famous high-pitched screech, which can carry over long distances at night. Most disputes are settled by noise and display rather than serious fighting.

The devil’s wide-mouthed gape looks like a threat, but studies suggest it is more often a sign of fear or uncertainty. Real fights do happen, especially between males in the breeding season, and many adults carry scars on the face and rump. Devils are also good swimmers, and young devils climb trees well, which helps them avoid hungry adults.

The question of why such a small animal got such a fearsome name is covered in why it is called a Tasmanian devil.

Reproduction and life cycle

Devils breed once a year. Mating takes place mostly in March, but can run from about February to June, and a male often guards a female in a den for several days. Females usually start breeding in their second year.

Pregnancy lasts only about 21 days. A female gives birth to 20–30 tiny young, each about the size of a grain of rice and weighing around 0.2 g (0.007 oz). They crawl to the mother’s backward-opening pouch, but she has only four teats, so no more than four can survive. The young, called joeys, imps or pups, stay attached to a teat for about 100 days.

After leaving the pouch the young stay in the den, still drinking milk, and sometimes ride on their mother’s back when she moves. They become independent at around 9 months, usually in early summer when food is most plentiful. Up to 60% of young devils die before they reach adulthood.

Lifespan

Wild Tasmanian devils rarely live longer than about 5 years. In zoos and wildlife parks they can reach 7–8 years. In areas affected by devil facial tumor disease, many devils now die by age 2 or 3, and females in those areas tend to breed younger, often only once.

Predators and threats

Healthy adult devils have few natural predators in Tasmania today. Young devils can be taken by wedge-tailed eagles, spotted-tailed quolls, owls and other devils. The thylacine probably preyed on devils before it was wiped out.

The biggest threat by far is devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), a contagious cancer spread mainly by bites during feeding and mating. It was first recorded in northeastern Tasmania in 1996, and a second, separate tumor was found in the south of the island in 2014. Infected devils usually die within months. Other threats include road traffic, with thousands of devils killed by vehicles each year, plus dogs, habitat change and, historically, poisoning and bounty hunting.

Conservation status

The Tasmanian devil is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with a decreasing population. It was rated as Least Concern until DFTD spread across most of the island; the 2008 assessment moved it to Endangered. Australian national and Tasmanian state laws also list it as Endangered.

Numbers have fallen sharply since the mid-1990s. A 2021 study estimated that the wild population had dropped from more than 50,000 animals before the disease to fewer than 20,000, while noting that decline had slowed in many areas. The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, run by the Tasmanian and Australian governments, manages disease-free insurance populations in zoos, sanctuaries and on Maria Island. Read more in are Tasmanian devils endangered?.

Myths and facts

Myth: Tasmanian devils attack people. There are no reliable records of devils attacking humans. They avoid people and often freeze or shake when cornered. Stories of devils eating living people come from their habit of eating carrion and their noisy behavior.

Myth: devils killed large numbers of sheep. Settlers paid bounties for devils from the 1830s, believing they were major livestock killers. Later research found that most losses blamed on devils were caused by feral dogs and poor farming practices; devils mostly ate sheep that were already dead or dying.

Myth: the cartoon Taz is realistic. The Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil, first drawn in 1954, spins like a tornado and eats anything. The real devil walks with a slow, lopsided gait, though it is very noisy and can run at up to about 25 km/h (16 mph) over short distances.

Relationship with people

Tasmanian Aboriginal people lived alongside devils for thousands of years and had their own names for the animal, including “purinina”. European settlers feared and persecuted the devil until it was protected by law in June 1941.

Attitudes have changed completely since then. The devil is now the best-known symbol of Tasmania, appears on the emblem of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service and draws visitors from around the world. Export is tightly controlled, but since 2005 small numbers of devils have gone to zoos outside Australia, in Europe, North America and New Zealand, as ambassadors for the conservation program. Devils also benefit farmers by cleaning up carcasses that would otherwise attract flies, and their decline may have allowed feral cats to become more common. Other Australian marsupials face very different problems; compare the koala, which lives on the mainland and eats only leaves.