Tasmanian devil brings out kid in us

It is probably not a stretch to say that I have never fully grown up just yet, despite being only a little more than 2-1/2 years shy of turning 50.
One of the best examples of that arguably was on display earlier this month, when I took a trip to the Saint Louis Zoo. Granted, some of that might’ve been because it was the first time I had ever been to the zoo — but I think most of it was because the animal I wanted to see was none other than a real live, honest-to-goodness Tasmanian devil.
Like many kids who grew up in the 1980s, one of the highlights of any weekend was watching Saturday morning cartoons. And like many children, one of my favorites was the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show. Of the many lively and loud characters that Bugs Bunny has crossed paths with, there are few, if any, that are larger than life than the Tasmanian devil.
In the short “Bedeviled Rabbit,” he was described as “a vicious ravenous beast with powerful jaws like a steel trap” that eats “aardvarks, ants, bears, boars, cats, bats, dogs, hogs, elephants, antelopes,” not to mention “stoats, goats, shoats, ostriches, lions, jackals, muskrats, minks, dingoes — and especially RABBITS!” — which is probably why he ended up tangling with Bugs so much.
In many of his appearances in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, his appearance was heralded by a stampede of animals fleeing in terror as he buzzed through trees, rocks and other objects like an EF-5 tornado — at least until he came across Bugs Bunny, who consistently outwitted him and made him look like a buffoon.
If you are like me, you probably thought for many years that the Tasmanian devil only existed in cartoons. Guess again.
The Tasmanian devil is, as its name suggests, a native of the island of Tasmania, which sits just off the southeast corner of Australia. And while they are quite loud, ill-tempered and ferocious, they look nothing like the Taz that many of us grew up with — in fact, they are actually quite cute in my opinion.
The typical Tasmanian devil is about the size of a beagle and is black with white and some brown markings. And like many mammals that live in or near Australia, they are marsupials — meaning that females have a pouch for their young, just like a kangaroo or an opossum.
While Tasmanian devils are known to sometimes eat animals as big as sheep and small kangaroos, they seem to prefer carrion (dead animals, such as roadkill) more often than hunting. They’ve even been known to steal people’s shoes and chew on them. I guess Bugs Bunny forgot to mention that Taz liked shoes!
Sadly, the Tasmanian devil is an endangered species because of the spread of devil facial tumor disease. DFTD is a contagious form of cancer that has nearly wiped out the critters and has made Tasmania and Australia work hard to save the Tasmanian devil. A wild population of Tasmanian devils has been reintroduced to parts of Australia and they have been sent to several zoos as part of a pilot program, including the Saint Louis Zoo.
Which brings us full circle to how I finally got to meet the Tasmanian devil. While they are nothing like what many of us grew up seeing on Saturday morning cartoons, they are still cooler than the other side of the pillow in my book.
Mike Buhler is a staff writer for the Daily American Republic. Contact him at mbuhler.dar@gmail.com