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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: Tasmania

Tasmania stories: 8 news summaries

'High as a Kite' Wallabies Draw Circles in Poppy Fields

It raises concerns about crop safety in Tasmania

Jun 25, 09 1:07 PM CDT
(Newser) - Crop circles popping up in Australia aren’t the work of extraterrestrial visitors, but of stoned wallabies, Livenews reports. Marsupials have been breaking into poppy fields—which supply 50% of the world’s opium to pharmaceuticals—and munching on the crops. Then, “high as a kite,” they spin... More »

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Australia • Tasmania • opium • wallaby • poppy field

Tumor-Stricken Tasmanian Devils Now 'Endangered'

Australia ups protections for devastated, iconic species

May 22, 09 9:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Tasmanian devil, the iconic inhabitant of the island off Australia and the world’s largest surviving carnivorous marsupial, is now officially endangered, reports the BBC. Under attack by a virulent disease characterized by facial tumors, the devil population may be as low as 20,000, down 70% since the... More »

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cancer • endangered species • Australia • Tasmanian Devil • Tasmania • tumor

 Aussies Herd 
 Beached Whales 
 Back to Sea 

194 animals beached; dozens returned to water

Mar 2, 09 7:46 AM CST
(Newser) - Rescuers using boats, stretchers, and a jet ski hauled dozens of whales and dolphins back to sea after 200 were beached on an Australian island, the Daily Telegraph reports. Some 59 animals were saved, ABC notes, as rescuers dug trenches and draped cloths over the whales to keep them cool... More »

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Australia • whale • Tasmania • rescue • dolphin

Devils Breed Earlier to Stave Off Cancer

Attempt to outlast disease could be evolutionary

Jul 14, 08 8:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - Tasmanian devils are reproducing at a younger age to offset a contagious cancer epidemic, the Daily Telegraph reports. The ill-tempered marsupials, suffering from tumors that cut their lifespan in half, are now breeding at age 1 instead of 2 or 3. "We could be seeing evolution occurring before our... More »

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endangered species • evolution • Australia • breeding • Tasmanian Devil • Tasmania • tumor

 Tasmania Moving Its Devils 

As cancer decimates critters, Aussies quarantine them on old prison peninsula

May 28, 08 1:22 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Australian government is stepping in to prevent the Tasmanian Devil from extinction, the Wall Street Journal reports, as the ill-tempered beasties have been dying off thanks to the world’s first contagious cancer, which they transfer by biting each other in the face. So zoologists are now working... More »

MORE ABOUT:
endangered species • conservation • Australia • Tasmanian Devil • Tasmania

 Cancer Can
 Be Contagious 

Tasmanian Devils transmit it by biting,
dogs with sex

Apr 6, 08 8:31 PM CDT
(Newser) - Contrary to long-held opinion, cancer can be contagious—and Darwin is to blame, a science reporter told NPR. It turns out cancer cells evolve as species do, and in some rare cases—a cancer affecting Tasmanian devils, two others in dogs and hamsters—the cancers have evolved to allow direct... More »

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cancer • Australia • Tasmanian Devil • Tasmania • Charles Darwin • contagious

Giant Squid Storms Australia

Mysterious 26-foot sea beast is longer than a bus and weighs a quarter-ton

Jul 11, 07 11:26 AM CDT
(Newser) - A giant squid that weighs 550 pounds and measures 26 feet from the tip of its body to the end of its fearsome tentacles washed up on an Australian beach today. The rarely spotted sea creature is the largest specimen encountered since February, when fishermen in New Zealand netted a... More »

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Australia • New Zealand • Tasmania • giant squid • squid • Ocean Beach • Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni

Tasmanian Devils Face Extinction

Iconic marsupials
hit by contagious
facial cancer

May 7, 07 8:33 AM CDT
(Newser) - Tasmanian Devils, the largest marsupial carnivore and the island's main tourist attraction, are threatened with extinction due to a contagious and fatal form of facial cancer spreading rapidly through the population. "Once they've got a lump, it's a one way trip,"  one expert  says. More »

MORE ABOUT:
cancer • Australia • disease • Tasmanian Devil • Tasmania • extinction • facial cancer • animal

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