# Can Tasmanian Devils Be Pets? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588 "2003-08-21T03:26:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/1 "2003-08-21T03:26:05Z")
I was researching Tasmanian Devils on the Web the other day and I found a site that said Australia was debating whether or not to allow the export of native wildlife as pets. Some people thought that a Tasmanian Devil could be domesticated; some said it was too dangerous. Then I recalled reading about a woman in Tasmania who actually breeds Devils, but this was at least 15 years ago. So, what’s the Straight Dope? Can Tasmanian Devils be made into pets? And even if they can, SHOULD they be? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/2 "2003-08-21T03:36:14Z")
Good question. I hope you get better responses than I did [when I asked a similar question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=191718). ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/3 "2003-08-21T03:40:35Z")
If you don’t mind all the slobbering and maniacal spinning. ---
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/4 "2003-08-21T03:44:38Z")
I should note for the record that the Tasmanian wildlife authorities do not consider the devils endangered. See question 50 on this [Tasmanian Devil FAQ.](http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-5372WP?open) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/5 "2003-08-21T04:20:43Z")
Just because someone can breed them, doesn’t mean they make good pets. I’ve seen them: no, I don’t believe they are domesticable. BTW anyone know how Warner Bros came across the TD? I’m surprised they would even know where Tasmania was in, what, the 50s when they first used that character? ---
**Author:** ![giftedest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7c8e57/32.png) [@giftedest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/giftedest)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/6 "2003-08-21T04:48:31Z")
If somebody’s willing to put years into careful breeding of Devils with tamer nature it can be done, but you may never have a completely safe animal. Skunks and Ferrets as examples, they’ve been bred domestic for many year, yet are still able and sometimes too willing to deliver a serious bite to any human, instinct runs deep in all of us. Maybe your 3 year old can pull the tail of the family German Shepherd, but the family skunk may take offense out of instinct. I’d consider Devils to be on the same plane as Wolves… Don’t let anyone tell you Wolves or Wolf Hybrids are considered domestic, no matter how hard it’s been tried! ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/7 "2003-08-21T05:00:07Z")
There are a few things that would stop you from keeping Tasmanian Devils as pets: - they are quite aggressive (although not as much as some people think) - they are carnivorous - I wouldn’t want one near a baby - they give off a really offensive odour when stressed - they have really powerful jaws (they consume their prey by crunching it up and eating it all - bones, fur, the lot) and a bite from one would not be a happy experience. - they are voracious feeders - single animals have been known to consume an entire cow in a few days - they are nocturnal - they can be extremely noisy - they can burrow to a limited extent and it would be difficult to keep one in your garden - they are not pack animals (although they may feed in groups) like dogs and wouldn’t recognise dominance or learn to obey orders -they’d just fight anything that tried to push them around - they are protected animals in Australia and I assume that they would be similarly protected in the US under intergovernmental treaty Imagine making a pet of an animal that never obeyed your orders, screeched and howled all night and had the strength to crush every bone in your body. ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/8 "2003-08-21T05:03:10Z")
One thing I forgot to mention - they are truly gruesome eaters. There’s a Quicktime movie of one eating on [this](http://www.tased.edu.au/tot/fauna/devil.html) site ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/9 "2003-08-21T05:10:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AndrewT \* > \*\*Just because someone can breed them, doesn’t mean they make good pets. > > I’ve seen them: no, I don’t believe they are domesticable. > > BTW anyone know how Warner Bros came across the TD? I’m surprised they would even know where Tasmania was in, what, the 50s when they first used that character? \*\* Apparently, from a serendipitous offhand remark: > [@](#): > > The Tasmanian Devil was conceived by director Robert McKimson and writer Sidney Marcus in 1954 as they were brainstorming to find a new opponent for Bugs Bunny. One of them remarked that the combined talents of animators at the cartoon studio had turned practically every animal in existence into a cartoon character and that all that remained was a Tasmanian Devil. Intrigued by this exception to a seeming rule, McKimson designed a creature shorter than Bugs and whose body was dominated by his stomach and mouth cavity- and whose rather feeble-looking legs and arms powered a spinning juggernaut that terrified animals of all shapes and sizes. from [http://looney.toonzone.net/articles/tazarticle.html](http://looney.toonzone.net/articles/tazarticle.html) Agreed, I’m surprised anyone in Hollywood thought “Tasmanian Devil” meant anything other than Errol Flynn. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/10 "2003-08-21T06:18:32Z")
I still wonder how they even knew about the animal in the first place. Maybe your average 1950s animator was more geographically educated than I thought. ---
**Author:** ![Ender\_Will](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Ender\_Will](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ender_Will)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/11 "2003-08-21T07:23:46Z")
IANAZoologist, but my one encounter with Devils (at a zoo outside of Sydney) made me realize that any other animal I’ve seen is a cute and fuzzy little critter in comparison. I agree with **Motog** ’s list, especially the bit about “they’d just fight anything that tried to push them around.” I was lucky enough to be there at feeding time, and it was a sight (and sound) to see (and hear). Fairly similar to the video **Motog** linked, but the video stars are more subdued than the ones I saw. In conclusion, I suppose they _could_ be pets, though they wouldn’t be good ones, and I can’t imagine anyone without organized crime connections wanting one. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/12 "2003-08-21T07:42:56Z")
> [@](#): > > - they are quite aggressive (although not as much as some people think) > - they are carnivorous - I wouldn’t want one near a baby > - they have really powerful jaws … and a bite from one would not be a happy experience. > - they are nocturnal > - they can be extremely noisy > - they can burrow to a limited extent and it would be difficult to keep one in your garden > - they are not pack animals (although they may feed in groups) like dogs and wouldn’t recognise dominance or learn to obey orders -they’d just fight anything that tried to push them around Sound just like cats really. 😉 (Apologies for deliberately bowdlerising quote.) > [@](#): > > - they are voracious feeders - single animals have been known to consume an entire cow in a few days Now that I can’t believe. A big devil weighs 8 kilos. A small cow weighs 200 kilos. No animal that size can eat 4 or more times its own body weight daily. Even tiny mammals like shrews and bats can only manage twice their body weight. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/13 "2003-08-21T12:40:49Z")
I think it would be more a case of a large group of TD’s demolishing a cow. In fact, Tasmanians are very worried because some sort of retrovirus is decimating the population of TD’s. One of the ways that they first realised there was a problem was when farmers began to notice that dead cattle and sheep which would normally have been scavenged and gone within days, were lying in the fields unmolested. ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-tasmanian-devils-be-pets/196588/14 "2003-08-25T01:58:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Blake \* > \*\*Sound just like cats really. 😉 > > (Apologies for deliberately bowdlerising quote.) > > Now that I can’t believe. A big devil weighs 8 kilos. A small cow weighs 200 kilos. No animal that size can eat 4 or more times its own body weight daily. Even tiny mammals like shrews and bats can only manage twice their body weight. \*\* I followed that up and searched for a reference to what I had often heard. All I managed to find were several references to groups of TDs consuming entire cattle and statements that single animals could consume 5 kgs or more in a single night. I will thus, somewhat sheepishly, withdraw that particular comment. Everything else is correct as far as I know.