New research shows how human-modified landscapes affect the diets of these marsupial scavengers.
The Tasmanian devil roams the island state of Australia as the apex predator of the land, feeding on whatever it pleases as the top dog – or the top devil. But some of these marsupial scavengers could be starting to miss out on a few items from the menu.
According to a study led by UNSW Sydney, living in human-modified landscapes could be narrowing the diet of the Tasmanian devil. The research, published recently in Scientific Reports, suggests devils have access to vastly different cuisines depending on the type of environment they live in.
"We found Tasmanian devil populations had different levels of variation in their diet depending on their habitat," says Anna Lewis, a PhD candidate at UNSW Science and lead author of the study. "The more that habitat was impacted by humans, the more restrictive the diet became."
A previous study by the team found most devils are individual specialists, feeding on the same food items consistently over time. But human impacts could be influencing whether they have access to their favourite foods.
"How humans change the environment impacts the animals within them," says Professor Tracey Rogers, an ecologist at UNSW Science and senior author of the study. "Even small changes can have significant consequences for devils, so we need to be mindful of the consequences of our actions."
The devil is in the details
For the study, the researchers investigated the diets of devil populations across habitats of differing levels of disturbance, from cleared pasture to undisturbed rainforest. They did this by analysing chemical stamps called stable isotopes in whisker samples taken from Tasmanian devils in different environments.
