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Tasmanian Devils: Contagious Cancer Drives the Risk of Extinction
By Roberta Attanasio In November 2013, a team of biologists scattered 15 plastic cylinders in the fields of Maria Island, three miles off the east coast of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Each cylinder contained a healthy Tasmanian devil, a marsupial species that until then lived only in Tasmania. Soon, the 15 devils emerged from the containers, becoming the first ever to inhabit Maria Island. The biologists were planning to take more devils to the island. Why? To establish a healthy colony, needed for the survival of the entire species. The Tasmanian devil is on the brink of extinction because of an unusual disease — a contagious cancer that is spreading very quickly.…