Tasmania, Australia
Tasmanian devils are being moved to another island in hopes of saving them from a mysterious cancer. The fox-size marsupials, native to the island of Tasmania, are dying from a rapidly spreading cancer of the face. “I think there’s a real risk of extinction within 20 years across the whole of Tasmania,” said wildlife researcher Hamish McCallum. Scientists are preparing to move 30 devils to Maria Island, a former prison island and now a wildlife sanctuary. McCallum shrugs off the fears of some of his colleagues that the devils, which can be vicious, will feast on Maria Island’s endangered birds. “I don’t want to get into an argument about whether a devil is worth more than a 40-spotted pardalote,” he said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 fact-checked cartoons about Meta firing its fact checkersCartoons Artists take on playing chicken, information superhighway, and more
-
NCHIs: the controversy over non-crime hate incidentsThe Explainer Is the policing of non-crime hate incidents an Orwellian outrage or an essential tool of modern law enforcement?
-
Islamic State: the terror group's second actTalking Point Isis has carried out almost 700 attacks in Syria over the past year, according to one estimate
