Tasmanian Devil, Maria Island, Tasmania, AustraliaNo wildlife trip to Tasmania is complete without a few encounters with the devil. This young Tasmanian devil, known as an imp, was photographed on Maria Island, a beautiful island off the mainland of Tasmania (which in itself is an island off the mainland of Australia). As some of you may know, Tasmanian devils have been fighting for their existence as of late and are considered an endangered species. They are suffering from facial tumour disease, which is a contagious cancer that has drastically reduced their numbers. Some estimates report that 80% of all wild Tasmanian devils have been wiped out due to the disease since it was first identified in the mid 90s. Many captive breeding programs are doing their best to save the devil from extinction. On Maria Island, healthy devils were released into the wild in 2012, and since then a population has continued to thrive, safe from the disease that is spread across much of the rest of Tasmania. The Maria Island program remains controversial, however, as the devils have themselves, decimated the population of several native species like the fairy penguin and the Cape Barren goose, which are easy targets for the insatiable appetite of the devil. I photographed this little guy as he was eyeing a wallaby carcass that was being devoured by an older devil. Like most of the wildlife in Tasmania, the devil is almost strictly nocturnal. PS: seems like a lot of jpeg compression is going on when I uploaded this image (it happens sometimes on certain images). Click on image for larger size that is a bit sharper and closer to the out-of-camera file.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second, Nikon SB-900 flash