Cancer forces Tasmanian devils to breed earlier
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - The little devils just can't wait. Faced with an epidemic of cancer that cuts their lives short, Tasmanian devils have begun breeding at younger ages, according to researchers at the University of Tasmania in Australia.
Since 1996 a contagious form of cancer called devil facial tumor disease has been infecting these animals and is invariably fatal, causing death between the ages of 2 and 3.
In the past devils would live five to six years, breeding at ages two, three and four, but with the new disease, even females who breed at two may not live long enough to rear their first litter.
Jones, who has been studying the animals' life cycles since before the disease outbreak, noted that there has been a 16-fold increase in breeding at age one.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_sc/sci_evolving_devils
Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_Devil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tasmanian_Devil_Facial_Tumour_Disease.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_Devil_%28Looney_Tunes%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoll
http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/
