University of Tasmania's Dr Rodrigo Hamede has been researching the Tasmanian Devil for 17 years.
He has watched the deadly DFTD destroy 60-70% of the Devil population and now he is now witnessing the spread of DFT2. While these cancers have similar names, they are totally different. “DFTD evolved from a female in northeastern Tasmania almost 30 years ago, whilst DFT2 evolved from a male near Cygnet in southeastern Tasmania almost 10 years ago. However, they are both fatal cancers threatening devil populations," he said.
Until recently, DFT2 was confined to the d’Entrecasteaux channel peninsula in southeastern Tasmania. Unfortunately, it is on the move.
In order to keep in front of the spread of the disease, Rodrigo and his team will be calling upon property owners in the Kingborough and Huon areas to assist with the research. "We need permission to set traps for the devils on private property. We then return to the area in ten days. If there is a devil in the trap we check it for tumours and take samples. The helps us to work out how fast the disease is spreading".
The team repeat this process every three months. It's labour intensive and expensive work.
Currently, there are over 350 property owners in the d’Entrecasteaux channel and Huon Valley region who are participating in Rodrigo’s research. Now, as the program expands to follow the epidemic frontline of DFT2 in real time, the work will dramatically increase.
There is good news! Recent work in the team had has found it is possible to monitor disease prevalence with high-definition camera traps on a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year basis.
Prof Barry Brook from the University of Tasmania's School of Natural Sciences is developing automated machine learning algorithms that allow identifying if devils have tumours or not. The next step is training the algorithm to differentiate DFTD from DFT2. The camera traps will help us to identify disease hot spots, and target our DFT2 live trapping epidemiological surveys in real time.
The cameras cost around $180 each, and 100 cameras are needed to get the work underway. It will be a big step forward - and hopefully one that will lead to evaluate the spread and impact of DFT2 and assess future conservation strategies.
"Thanks to the generous support of the community we have come this far. Every dollar counts – together, we will protect this tough, top predator Tasmanian icon", says Rodrigo.
Would you like to learn more about Rodrigo's research?
Are you one of the many businesses across the country hosting one of these fabulous black boxes?
Have you been collecting loose change (and folding notes too!) from your thoughtful customers and staff?
A reminder that all you need to do to bank the donations is to take the box to any Commonwealth Bank and deposit directly into the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal account with the number of your box. Drop us an email at devil.appeal@utas.edu.au if you've misplaced the account details or if you'd like a new box.
Thank you for your support!
In May we launched our annual end-of-financial year appeal. As we have seen in this edition of Devil's Advocate there are many ways to raise funds for the program, and we are extremely fortunate to have an engaged and caring community - across the globe - who are willing to do what they can to keep improving the health and wellbeing of our devil.
To date, the 2023 appeal has raised $58,300 and while this is a magnificent effort, we are still behind our annual target of $75,000.
We thank all our wonderful donors who make the critical work of our researchers possible. We are truly making progress, and while it is a privilege to share good news we do have a way to go.
We are making progress with a vaccine and we are working hard to keep ahead of the spread of DRF-1 and DFT-2. We have come this far, thanks to the generosity of our global community.
Together, we can go even further.