Dying Devils
Categorized under Animal Oddities, OMG!
Posted by Luke
One of many victims
The Tasmanian Devil, the world’s largest marsupial carnivore, is found in only one place, the island of Tasmania off the coast of Australia. It is now endangered. In the last 15 years, 70% of the animals have been wiped out from one thing: a highly-contagious, highly-lethal facial cancer.
When an cancerous devil is bitten by another (and those little jerks like to bite a lot), the cancer cells themselves can actually hop from one animal to the other and the one that was previously cancer-free becomes a breeding ground for the cancer cells.
There are a number of cancer-causing things that are contagious, like certain strains of the human papilloma virus, which can cause cervical cancer in women, but for the cancer itself to be contagious is a pretty rare and unusual thing. The only other one I know of is an STD that dogs get, but doctors are on the lookout for the possibility that something like that might crop up in humans.
It’s pretty creepy to think that there is a mutated, cancerous remnant of a long-dead Tasmanian devil haunting the rest of its kind as it works its way from devil to devil, slowly disfiguring their faces until they’re unable to eat or breathe. It makes the story of Henrietta Lacks sound pretty tame in comparison, doesn’t it?
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lol thats so cool
That is NOT “cool” you heartless idiot!!!!
you go jj
That is NOT cool, no one is worried about where the world is going dont you feel sad for all these species getting endangered why should an innocent animal die because of human activities like polluting the air etc feel sorry for whts happenning to the world not living cool atleast if people cant do that just pray for them but not joke on them
way to go jj. dats not cool at all this is horrific to hear and see. i cant believe that someone would say that this is cool.
It is dreadful, and they act like this is a laughing matter by saying lol,that is not funny if something/someone would ,did, or is dieing
where is the weird stuff
dont know
search for the love dolls
so sad helo them help them
poor thing:(
D: that is so sad. they are adorable thoughh. i hope they find a cure cause it would suck if they went extinct ):
i agree.i think someone should help them
stupid things! killing their only hope at lfe! maybe we should put them in a zoo or something… keep them safer?
Educate yourselves alittle bit people. First of, if we havent found an exact cure for cancer, it will take a lot longer to find it in an animal that is becoming extinct. Cool? You are an idiot because the same thing happens to us humans during skin cancer. Cancer is NOT a humuorous matter. Of course the people leaving comments after the idiot, paige left that idiocy of a comment, are going to be upset. If you honestly think that that video was there to entertain us, your wrong. It’s there to educate us, in a situation were people are beginning to think that the world is ending. Hurricanes, volcanoe eruptions, tornadoes, earthqquakes, and now sickness that spread amongst the creatures of earth, horribly, painfully, and gruesome.
thats sad
I saw Jack Hanna handling some cancer-struck devils on his show once. What makes the cancer so disastrous is that it usually attacks the jaw, growing and breaking through the bone, and rendering them unable to get food or water without being in tremendous pain, so they slowly die of hunger, dehydration, or malnutrition. It really is a sad thing, and I’d hate to see another one of Australia’s wonderful marsupials go extinct as the Thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger, did years and years ago.
try to separeta the infected ones?
i want to go and save them all from that dredful cancer!
So pity…
oh!poor dog……………….