I had to share these photos of me with a five month old baby Tasmanian Devil. Dear friends of mine rear babies like these when they are orphaned. Devils have a fearsome reputation, but they are truly wonderful unique marsupials - intelligent, playful and just so endearing. The really sad thing is that they are now critically endangered, because they are being wiped out by a particularly nasty transmissable cancerous facial tumour. The jury is out as to the cause of the outbreak of this disease, but I remain to be convinced that increased habitat destruction, clearfell logging, burning, aerial spraying of plantations and wildlife poisoning with nasty poisons like 1080 has nothing to do with it (yes - in the C21st this kind of thing is still happening)........the correlation between the two things is just too strong for it to be ignored. Just another sad chapter in the total lack of regard we humans have for our fellow species. I don't usually use my blog as a soapbox, but I had to make an exception in this case.
