If you were a Gen-X kid, there’s a good chance you watched Looney Tunes cartoons from time to time. And that was probably your first exposure to the creature called the Tasmanian Devil.

Looney Tunes’ take on the Tasmanian Devil was not entirely inaccurate! They do have voracious appetites, and their front legs are longer than their hind legs, which gives them a “pig-like” gait.

We had a Funk & Wagnall’s animal encyclopedia set when I was growing up – and I LOVED reading about animals! Whenever a volume was missing, my mom would say, “Heather – do you have one of the animal encyclopedia books in your bedroom again?”

“Yes, mom…sorry!” Busted! Maybe my brother needed that volume for a school report? Or maybe Mom just wanted to make sure we had all of the volumes on the shelf because company was coming over? Who knows!

This was one of the volumes I would read the most. Probably because I thought the picture of the harp seal was cute! Seriously…isn’t that cute? I was horrified when I learned that people were clubbing these things to death for their fur!

I would read about various creatures before I went to bed each night. I loved the dry writing…so full of facts! I loved the Latin words for the scientific names…finding out if they were endangered – or not – and learning where all of these animals lived.  And then there were photos! And of course…I got to read about the mating rituals! I’ll talk more about THOSE a bit later on 😉

Which brings me to the Tasmanian Devil. I looked up this animal in the Funk & Wagnall’s animal encyclopedia, and was excited to learn that it was indeed a real animal – not just a cartoon. And I wanted to share that knowledge with the world. Well, my second-grade class. Which I attempted to do.

“Hey, the Tasmanian Devil is a real animal,” I said to one of the other kids.

“No it’s not,” said the kid. “It’s just a cartoon character.”

“It’s real,” I said. So I fetched the teacher, whom I’ll call “Mrs. H.” She did NOT back me up. WTF?

“It’s not a real animal, Heather – it’s just a cartoon.” Did “Mrs. H.” really believe this – or was she just trying to get her kids to STFU? I’m sure this teacher is no longer among the living, so I can only speculate! But I think she probably did think it was not a real animal. Nope, this teacher does not rank as one of my favorite teachers!

Needless to say, I was furious! So when I got home I asked my mom if I could bring in the Funk & Wagnall’s volume that had the Tasmanian Devil entry – and explained why I wanted to do it. She said “Yes, go ahead. But be careful with it.”

So I went to school the next day and proved that the Tasmanian Devil was a real animal. I wouldn’t say that incident made me more liked by the other kids (or the teacher, whom I was forced to show up) – but this incident spoke “volumes” about my personality (see what I did there)?

Me with a “Charlie Brown’s Super Book of Questions and Answers,” possibly a gift for my 8th birthday. The seeds of dorkdom were planted early…I absolutely LOVED these books!

Fast forward to sixth grade, when my teacher “Mrs. C.” would do current events trivia contests – which I would frequently win (having a daddy who watched tons of news shows and subscribed to multiple newspapers definitely helped me out there)! Since I was kind of picked on a lot (even bullied) during this time – and wanted nothing but to left alone – these little triumphs were probably welcome bright spots for me! I’m pretty sure the teacher gave out some kind of prize “swag,” which probably meant stickers, or candy, or something (I loved stickers at that time).

So now that I’ve established that the Tasmanian Devil is a real animal, let’s talk about it a bit, shall we?

Fun Facts About Tasmanian Devils! The Devil is in the Details…

The Tasmanian Devil in one of their more docile moments…do not be fooled! Read on to learn more about these “devilish” animals!

Habitat

First off, it’s a marsupial, which means a couple of things – one, it lives in the land “Down Under,” in this case, on the island of Tasmania, formerly called “Van Diemen’s Land.” Most marsupials tend to live in this region of the world, with the exception of opossums, which live predominately in North America. Secondly, they have their babies in pouches – which means they are SUPER tiny when they are born. They have to crawl their way out of Mama’s baby hole and into this pouch, which has, in the Tasmanian Devil’s case, only four nipples to feed up to 50 baby devils. This means they don’t all end up living… (woe for the trials of life).

So how did they get the name “devil?” Well, if you’re thinking that they got this name because they’re kinda cantankerous – and not very nice – you’d be right! Early European settlers noticed their “devilish” displays, which included teeth-baring, lunging, and an array of spine-chilling guttural growls. Their powerful jaws can deliver one of the most powerful bites of any mammal. They are the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial, and can weigh up to a whopping 26 pounds (about the weight of a really large cat). Being the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial is kind of like being the world’s largest rodent (that distinction goes to the capybara). It’s kind of like being a really big fish in a little pond, if you will!

This is a capybara, the world’s largest rodent, with a cat. These animals apparently have a reputation for being kind of chill – and popular with the other animals (as evidenced here). That is not the case with Tasmanian Devils!

As their name suggests, they live on…Tasmania, which used to be a penal colony of the British Crown called Van Diemen’s Land (which I think is a really cool name). Their habitat used to include Australia as well, but in the landmark case of Dingoes vs. the Tasmanian Devil? Guess which side lost? So they are pretty much isolated to Tasmania now, and in old “Looney Tunes” cartoons.

Who could resist the charms of Lady Bugs Bunny?

Not only are Tasmanian Devils isolated to Tasmania, but they also have this horrible face cancer thing they’re fighting now. It makes it so difficult to eat that they starve to death, which for them, is a fate worse than death (they really, really like eating). Conservationists are working on this…More about food in a bit!

Food, Glorious Food!

When a Tasmanian Devil manages to score some food, they eat EVERY bit of it – hair, bones, organs, packaging. If their food came in a Styrofoam carry-out box, they would probably eat the box. If it came wrapped in a tinfoil swan, they would probably eat the foil. And the nearest swan (though I think the swan would do a pretty good job fighting ’em off – they can get pretty nasty in a fight). If their food was packaged in a 1978 Ford Pinto, they would probably eat the car – even the poorly positioned fuel tank that led to rear-end accidents causing it to…blow up. OK, you know I’m just being silly here, don’t you?

A neighbor/friend’s mom had a Ford Pinto, so I rode around in one quite a bit! She drove us to the hospital after we ate nightshade berries (which looked much more delicious than most of the foods eaten by Tasmanian Devils – or seventh graders in a school cafeteria).

Since they are carnivores, they are strictly meat-eaters – their favorite foods include snakes, birds, fish, and insects and YOU (LOL). They will even settle for sloppy seconds – and eat what some other animal killed – or some poor animal who died of natural causes – in other words, carrion (road kill, if you prefer). Like seventh-graders embroiled in a food fight – flinging ketchup-soaked fries or mystery meat pizza chunks at each other, Tasmanian Devils get pretty rambunctious when food is involved! They will get into fights with other devils when they are all gnawing at a yummy, yummy carcass. Technically, the carcass doesn’t have to be yummy for them to want to eat it – it just has to be there – and not guarded by something bigger and more fierce than them. Though normally a solitary animal, Tasmanian Devils will hang with other devils when there is something, big, and delicious to munch on – and fight for their right to eat it! Any surplus fat that marsupials eat tends to get stored in their tails.

As I said, not that different from seventh graders embroiled in a food fight, is it?

Let’s talk about sex, baby!