Going on a Tasmanian Devil Hunt

Yesterday when Selena woke up she informed me that we were going to hunt for the Tasmanian Devil. I really had a pretty good idea that was coming up after she found Tasmania on her Australia map. I asked her, “Where do you think we need to look for them at?” I think you all can guess her answer, “In Tasmania of course!”

We first started by getting more facts on Tasmania itself. I asked Selena why she though this island was named Tasmania? She of course figured it was because of the Tasmanian Devil. She quickly found out that this truly was not the case. Tasmania was named after a Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who reported seeing the Island on November 24, 1642. It took a little bit for Selena to make the connection between Tasmania and the explorer’s last name.

Now our hunt was on. We wanted to find out if there truly were Tasmanian Devils that lived on this Island, as well as if there were any on the main land of Australia. I have to admit I never really gave this question much thought, I just assumed that Tasmanian Devils lived in Australia, but it wasn’t until studying this with Selena that we found out that truly Tasmania Devils are only found in Tasmania. This was not always the case and there is a lot of speculation as to why they left the mainland one of which is that they were chased off by the Dingos.

We read on about the Tasmanian Devils to discover that they are carnivorous, which Selena proudly announced, “That means they eat dead meat.” We also learned that they are marsupials, meaning they have a pouch like a kangaroo. This one puzzled me and I couldn’t find any pictures to truly show this fact. Though through further research we did learn that yes, indeed female Tasmanian Devils do carry their babies in a pouch.

Selena learned that they are the size of a small dog, and she concluded they had the features of a bear with red ears, and that they are black and white. She also decided that they truly do sound very mean with that screaming. Actually that is how they got their name of Devil, from the screaming they do at night while eating. Selena asked one interesting question, “Are these the same as Satan spoke of in the Bible?” We had to quickly do a short bible study on Satan so she understood that in no way are Tasmanian Devils related to Satan.

Selena quickly found Tasmania again on her map and we labeled it. Making sure I knew that Tasmania is not part of the mainland, but it is a small Island. Then she quickly decided to write a story about the Tasmanian Devil.

Tasmanian Devil by Selena

Tasmanian Devils are mean.

They growl and scream.

They eat meat.

They live in Tasmania, Australia.

The End.