farmdoc's blog post number 404

Farming’s unpredictable. Sometimes things go unexpectedly wrong. And at other times unexpectedly right. But there are some farming axioms. One is ‘if you have livestock, you have deadstock’. And we do. When we find a moribund sheep or goat, Sharon and I kill and butcher it for dog meat. But when we discover a dead animal, we drag it into the bush where the Tasmanian Devils eat the carcass, bones and all. A few years ago the devils took under a week to do their job. But nowadays some carcass remains are present weeks later. That’s due to a massive fall in the devil numbers, due to the devil facial tumour disease [DFTD]. As per this ABC report, devil numbers have fallen by up to 70% in the past 13 years; and last Friday the devil’s threatened species status was changed from vulnerable (i.e. not yet classified as endangered, but numbers continue to drop) to endangered (i.e. in danger of extinction). The only three ‘worse’ threatened species categories are critically endangered, extinct in the wild and extinct. In the past 200 years, 17 Australian mammals have become extinct. And Australia has more endangered species than any other continent. I’ve no idea if the devils’ category change will improve its prognosis. Captive insurance devil populations should prevent total extinction. But as for devils in the wild, despite the research effort, I’m not optimistic.