Tasmania's answer to Africa's Honey Badger?

Devils mostly scavenge for carrion - road kill or anything else that's not putting up a fight. To me they look like physical misfits - their paws look awkward, their very active shiny noses look like they've been stuck onto the wrong animal, their ears, especially when backlit, look like the animal is on fire. And their vocalisation is really quite scary - so much so that in 2007 its screeching was voted in an international survey as being one of the world's worst sounds (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-01-26/tassie-devil-ranks-in-worlds-worst-sounds/2180624).

Tasmanian Devils are very curious marsupials. It is the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world. We visited a wildlife park near Bicheno in Tassie which, unknown to us, hosted several Devil populations - more than we have seen anywhere else in Australia. What's more, we arrived just at feeding time for a group of four very hungry juveniles... 

There was a lot of growling - 'growling' doesn't really describe the noise these animals make. It's a mixture of desperation, threat, and great hunger mixed with a noise worse to fingernails scraping a blackboard. The Devil's bite has been rated as being one of the strongest of any predatory animal, size for size - exerting 553psi of force. So don't pat them when they are eating!

The keeper did a good job of maintaining the devilish patter while avoiding being bitten and the devils devoured the soft bits before moving on to the less attractive parts of the possum - the bones and the fur.

At this stage of breakfast all of the soft tissue had been ripped out of the very stinky carcass so with a memorably crunching all four started on the bones...

Yum!  They have very long whiskers on their faces - a feature that helps them find live prey when hunting at night. This Devil has quite pronounced markings - like a white scarf around its neck although the keeper did say that this was a random pattern - the other three in this exhibit were mostly black.

Now all the flesh and bones have been consumed it's time for the pelt - which, at this stage, looked like an abandoned glove puppet.

Surprisingly despite their ferocious nature and ability to eat almost anything, dead or alive (but preferably dead) Devils rarely live for more than 5 years. Although they are not 100% nocturnal, they do hunt at night - which is where their long whiskers come into play. They have excellent hearing and an acute sense of smell - they can detect prey up to one kilometre away. An 8kg male Devil can take on a 30Kg wombat  and win. Its massively strong bite allows it to hang on till the prey dies.

At another Devil exhibit these young pups were actively playing - they kept jumping into the bath, more to leave their scent than for better Devil hygiene. As soon as one had done this, another appeared and jumped in to repeat the process.

Here the light is catching the Devil's very long whiskers - these are used to help it find prey in the dark.
(Pic by Natalie Hitchens)

A devilish face only a mother can love
(Pic by Natalie Hitchens)

(Pic by Natalie Hitchens)

In this shot of a passing Tassie Devil, you can clearly appreciate its unusual facial colouring - the young ones were mostly black faced but the adults in the exhibit tended to look a lot more battered - whether that's from previous hunting exploits or from scraps with fellow inmates, who knows!
(Pic by Natalie Hitchens)

This young animal keeper climbed into the enclosure with a (very smelly) dead possum and the fight was on. She sensibly wore good boots but grimly hung on to the possum's tail as the four occupants proceeded to pull the possum apart.