Photo Gallery: Tasmanian Devil

Sleeping Tasmanian Devil

Photograph by Kathy Atkinson/OSF

Tasmanian devils are usually nocturnal animals, sleeping in burrows or hollow logs during the day and emerging at night to feed. Occasionally individuals such as this snoozing specimen in Tasmania will break the pattern and come out in daylight to bask in the sunshine.

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Yawning Tasmanian Devil

Photograph by Ian Waldie/Getty Images

This yawning Tasmanian devil was photographed at a quarantine facility in Hobart, Tasmania in Australia. The site monitors the animals for signs of devil facial tumor disease (DFTC), a fatal, contagious cancer that over the past decade has decimated wild populations of this iconic Australian marsupial.

Scarred Tasmanian Devil

Photograph by Jason Edwards

Most adult Tasmanian devils bear facial scars from the many run-ins these irascible marsupials have with one another. Such injuries are usually the result of mating duels, but feeding spats can turn nasty as well. Scientists think these facial bites are the way devil facial tumor disease is being spread among devils.

Running Tasmanian Devil

Photograph by Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images

Captive Tasmanian devils such as this one at the National Zoo in Canberra, Australia, could be critical in the fight to save the species from extinction. A virulent, lethal cancer strain has wiped out more than half of Tasmania's wild devils, and officials are bolstering captive breeding programs to preserve a healthy "insurance" population should the disease continue to spread.