WE'RE SAVING DEVILS WITH MEAT NUGGETS

WE'RE SAVING DEVILS WITH MEAT NUGGETS Yes. Seriously. These absolute crashout demons are Tasmanian devils. You probably know Taz. But in real life, they're usually shy, solitary, and weirdly lovable. Video credit: Love Nature Video credit: Free High-Quality Documentaries Long ago, Tasmanian devils lived across mainland Australia. Today, they're found only in Tasmania, where they waddle around like overstuffed Build-A-Bears, cleaning up dead animals before they become a problem. They're basically nature's sanitation department. Just with way more screaming. They're only about the size of a beagle, but they have the strongest jaws of any living marsupial and can crush through kangaroo bone. Video credit: Love Nature Video credit: Animalogic But these wild little island meatballs are getting wrecked. A contagious cancer called devil facial tumor disease, or DFTD, has devastated populations across Tasmania. In some places, more than 95% of devils have vanished. But here's the really cursed part. These are facial tumors. And Tasmanian devils naturally bite each other's faces. If one has DFTD, living cancer cells can pass straight into another devil's mouth. Video credit: Animalogic Photo credit: NRE Tasmania The tumors grow across their mouths and faces until infected devils can no longer eat. The disease is always fatal. If we lose them, we lose the world's largest living carnivorous marsupial. Nobody wants that. So how do you vaccinate a wild Tasmanian devil? Meat nuggets. Like getting a vaccination at Arby's. Video credit: Business Events Tasmania Dr. Andrew Flies and the University of Tasmania are developing edible vaccine baits that wild devils can find and eat. Yup. Meat nuggets could save the Tasmanian devil. Video credit: Wild Immunity UNIVERSITY of TASMANIA MENZIES Institute for Medical Research And that's only half the story. Colossal is also working with Dr. Flies and the University of Tasmania to understand how the devil genome could be edited to make future populations more resistant to diseases like DFTD. This is just the beginning. We're stoked to partner with Dr. Andrew Flies and the University of Tasmania to help protect this absolutely one-of-a-kind species. Bring on the meats. Video credit: Love Nature