In Face of Disease, Tasmanian Devils Change Breeding Habits


	In Face of Disease, Tasmanian Devils Change Breeding Habits

seaj11

7-15-2008 5:41 PM

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tags:

animals, nature, zoology, mating, disease

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/514c2097-571b-4097-99a5-dbbc56d1ddc1/3A75DCC5-2A01-41A9-A6E9-900CF15D7755/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14316-devils-get-pregnant-early-to-avoid-cancer.html?feedId=online-news_rss20" href="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14316-devils-get-pregnant-early-to-avoid-cancer.html?feedId=online-news_rss20" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14316-devils-get-pregnant-early-to-avoid-cancer.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>In what seems like a desperate bid to survive, Tasmanian devils are showing precocious sexual behaviour in populations that have been ravaged by a <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg18925375.200-tasmanian-devils-felled-by-rare-cancer.html">fatal devil facial tumour disease</A>.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14316-devils-get-pregnant-early-to-avoid-cancer.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>Tasmanian devils are dasyurid mammals, a family that is famous for its live-fast-and-die-young breeding strategy, in which animals invest in intense early reproduction at the expense of longevity. One of the best known examples is a tiny shrew-like marsupial called an <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg19225763.800-mate-like-crazy-and-let-the-sperm-fight-it-out.html">antechinus</A> - the males grow for 10 months, and then have sex for one month, forgoing food, and starving to death. By the time the females give birth there are no males left.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14316-devils-get-pregnant-early-to-avoid-cancer.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>Devil facial tumour disease was first reported in 1996. By last year it had spread to more than half the animal’s range in Tasmania, leading some experts to predict that the disease could make the animal extinct in the wild within 25 years.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14316-devils-get-pregnant-early-to-avoid-cancer.html?feedId=online-news_rss20">a disease that is spread by the transfer of cancerous cells from one animal to another, in this case when the animals bite.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3A75DCC5-2A01-41A9-A6E9-900CF15D7755/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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