The Tasmanian devil is the world's largest carnivorous marsupial and the only member of the Tasmanian devil family that is not extinct, found only in Tasmania, Australia.
Due to their short, lean body size and unique fighting style, as well as their amazing bite force, they are dubbed the "Tasmanian Devil".
Tasmania has historically been a refuge for large marsupials, but many large carnivorous marsupials quickly disappeared after Europeans landed in Australia.
Because the local population believed that these animals would kill domestic animals, they carried out large-scale hunting, and tasmanian devils survived due to their small size and adaptability.
In 1936, Australia's last thylacine died, which made people aware of the importance of protecting species, so the endangered Tasmanian devil became a protected animal.
Since then, Tasmanian devils, free from human interference, have begun to recover their populations, but unfortunately, at the end of the 20th century they contracted an incurable disease.
Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease (DFTD)
This is a non-viral infectious parasitic tumor in which the mouth of the infected Tasmanian devil begins to show epidermal lesions and lumps, after which these changes can be transmitted from the face to the whole body and develop into a tumor.
Tumors in the face can severely affect the eyes, nose and mouth of Tasmanian devils, causing them to lose their ability to forage and eventually starve to death.
In addition, tumors that invade the body can cause organ failure and other organ tissue infections, which further increases their mortality.
The researchers found that the mortality rate of infected Tasmanian devil populations reached 100% within 12-18 months, which is undoubtedly a disaster.
The disease was first detected in Tasmanian Devils in 1996 and has since spread to 95% of the Tasmanian devil range, reducing the tasmanian devil population by more than half.
More seriously, in 2014, a mutated strain of DFTD (DFT2) appeared in the Tasmanian devil population, which made vaccine development more complicated.
According to relevant reports, the strain of this lesion may also spread to other related species, such as quail, which will inevitably cause great damage to Australia's biodiversity.
How tumor diseases are transmitted
Infectious tumor diseases are extremely rare, except for DFTD, only canine infectious stamours, which are transmitted through the sexual behavior of dogs.
How is the tasmanian devil's facial tumor spread? It is also funny to say that the reason why tumor diseases can spread on a large scale among Tasmanian devils is entirely due to the Tasmanian devils themselves.
Tasmanian devils are small but aggressive, often fighting over food or mates, and the way they attack is apparently by biting with their mouths.
The disease spreads when two Tasmanian devils bite each other's faces during a battle, which is why the disease first appears on the face.
In addition, some scientists believe that the bite not only causes the tumor to spread, but it may also be the culprit of the tumor disease.
Because if the recurrent scarring process is interrupted by mutations, it can be carcinogenic, and the scar that cannot be healed will grow into an external tissue and then spread.
Pictured: a healed Tasmanian devil
"Demons" are expected to defeat "disease"
While the history of the Tasmanian devil population as a whole looks full of disasters and misfortunes, the good news that has come out recently is that they are slowly adapting and overcoming tumor disease.
One of the bases for this conclusion is that scientists have found that the curve of variation in the mutated genome across the population begins to flatten, which means that the infectivity of tumor diseases begins to decline.
This disease tracking method belongs to genomics and is generally used to track infectious viruses in humans, which is the first time scientists have used it for tumor analysis.
Another intuitive fact is that scientists were pleasantly surprised to find that more and more of the diseased Tasmanian devil's facial tumors began to subside, showing normal skin.
In the past, people isolated sick Tasmanian devils in order to prevent the spread of disease in Tasmanian devils, but the spread of the disease has not slowed down.
The human approach was to intervene too much in the Tasmanian devil population to adapt to this terrible disease on their own, and the result was that the Tasmanian devil won.
More remarkably, Tasmanian devils adapt to oncology extremely quickly, evolving into diseases in only five generations within 16 years of the disease's ravages.
Earlier we said that they escaped the hunt of humans, and now the victory over the stubborn disease seems to be even greater, and it is not without reason that they are the only remaining members of the family.
At last
From the moment of its inception, there has been a constant "arms race" between animals and diseases, with one side trying to become more aggressive and the other as much as possible to improve its defenses.
This defensive capability can manifest itself in two ways: one is to tolerate adaptation, and the other is to resist counterattack.
The human immune system clearly falls into the latter form of defense, and tasmanian devils' successful defenses against tumor diseases are a perfect adaptation.
Our attitude towards cancer cells tends to be destroyed, but from the successful "cancer fight" of Tasmanian devils, we may learn new ideas and new things.