It seems there is an epidemic of cancer spreading among the little devils in Northeast Tasmania, where 90% of the beasts have perished. It is spreading south and west and scientists estimate there will be no disease-free populations within five years.
Enter Warner Bros., whose cartoons have made an icon of Taz and his brethren:
A nice offer, although I’m doubtful how much it will actually raise. Still, every bit helps. And it’s definitely needed. The danger facing the Tasmanian devil is pretty significant.
Wonder whether WB will reconsider when they lay eyes on the actual animal and note it doesn’t look remotely like their cartoon version.
And they don’t spin around in circles. But they do manage the same hostility.
But they still don’t deserve to go extinct. It bad enough that we killed off all the Tasmanians.
To be fair, Devil facial tumour disease appears to be natural and some resistance may be developing within the Devil population. However, resistance genes may not spread fast enough to preserve the current population. If that is that case, isolation of breeding groups until the current outbreak burns out is the only thing that will save the Devils.
Si
I brought up this last year, along with the Australian annomaly of parthenogenesis on the western continent. It’s a nasty disease for sure.
Such a shame that the Tazmanian Devil is dying like that, a dollar per DVD sold dosen’t seem too much for me…hopefuly it will be enough.
If they’d release more seasons of Night Court on DVD, I’ll bet it would raise a lot of money for the poor devils. At least from me.
I was reading a book on the Tasmanian Devil which commented on the relationship between the real animal and its cartoon counterpart and the relations between Warner Bros. and the Australian government over the use over the Taz character. The Australian government has wished to use Taz as a symbol of goodwill and tourism in the past, and Warner Bros. has attempted to sue Australian businesses that use the “Tasmanian Devil” name on their products, even though it is the name of a real animal. I’m glad to see that the two are working together to help save the animal.
So they’re not dying off due to a rabbit shortage?
If the books that Bugs Bunny uses for reference are any indication, there are dozens of other animals Tazmanian devils could eat for sustenance.
Duck shortage!
It’s great of Warner to help, but the actual offer is kind of underwhelming.
Rabbit shortage!
Duck shortage!
Rabbit shortage!
I can’t imagine that Chuck Jones would be happy with WB suing folks over the use of Tasmanian Devil. In his autobiography Chuck Amok, he talks about working with various wildlife groups, seems he felt that since animals helped provide him with a comfortable living, he owed them a bit of help.
Still, it’s nice to see that WB is offering to help.
Duck shortage!
This is the point where ol’ Bugs would turn the tables:
Bugs: Duck shortage.
Daffy: Well, I say there’s a rabbit shortage. What are you waitin’ for? Eat the duck!
You keep out of this. He does not have to eat you now.
There’s the problem- pronoun trouble.
Elmer Shortage???