Chemical clues in 'Tasmanian devil' whiskers reveal their feeding habits, study says

The long whiskers on these marsupials bear chemical imprints of the food they’ve eaten in the past — These records can help tell broader stories about their foraging habits, habitat use, and how they respond to environmental changes.

Researchers have now mapped this timescale for the first time, showing that ‘Tasmanian devil’ whiskers can capture seasonal dietary changes for at least nine months, potentially up to a year.

Provided by research results recently published in Ecosphere developed a method for monitoring endangered native species with minimal disruption to their habitat.

“We are using the whiskers of Tasmanian devils to go back in time,” said Tracey Rogers, senior author of the study and professor in the Department of Science at UNSW.

“Once dissected, these whiskers can act like tree rings, painting a picture of what animals ate a year ago and how they lived.”

So far, with bags Using a badger’s whiskers to track its foraging habits is a bit like using a chaotic time machine: Scientists can see chemical records, but can’t confirm whether they’re from a week, a month, or a year.

To get a clearer picture of the timeline, the UNSW-led research team fed six captive devils a diet rich in heavily stable isotopes at three-month intervals Pills — These atomic types do not decay into other elements over time. These stable isotopes act as time stamps, marking the whiskers as each season passes.

When more than a year had passed, the team removed the longest whiskers from each animal for analysis. They found that the whiskers grew rapidly at first, then slowed down, and that the whiskers grew to different maximum lengths in different parts of their mouths. On average, the longest whiskers preserved the animal’s ecological history for at least nine months — but as whisker growth slowed over time, the researchers thought they likely survived for a year.

The research team used their findings to create a new whisker analysis model that could help track how these endangered animals, recently brought to the brink of extinction, are doing in the wild.

“The Tasmanian devil population is currently recovering after it was affected by a highly disseminated cancer called ‘Devil Facial Tumor Disease’ (DFTD) devastating impact,” said the study’s lead author, Dr Marie Attard, a postdoctoral research assistant at Royal Holloway, University of London, who did the work during her PhD at UNSW.

“Since the disease was discovered in the 1990s, many healthy individuals have been moved to disease-free areas or become part of captive breeding programs to help improve their population.”

“This whisker analysis tool will greatly improve their management in both original and displaced wild populations.”

Professor Rogers said: “The nice thing about hard tissues is that they can’t be changed any more – they’re basically dead cells.” The method A major benefit is that it captures this information with minimal disturbance to the animal’s habitat: an annual harvest may provide more insight into the lifestyle of the “Tasmanian Devil” than a week-long observation tour.

While scientists can begin to apply the new model in their research, Dr. Attard said the method could be improved with further research, increasing the sample size, and more accurately Measure the growth cycle of the beard.

Researchers using this method should also pluck one beard at a time, as beards are important to how “Tasmanian devils” experience their surroundings.

DFTD is the disease currently destroying the “Tasmanian Devil” population, which behaves differently from any type of cancer known to man. In fact, this type of cancer — which is contagious — is rare in nature at all.

Professor Rogers said: “There are only three examples of transmissible cancers in mammals. Sadly, DFTD is one of them.”

The disease spreads rapidly in the “Tasmanian Devil” population, passing between animals as they bite each other in battle. Since its discovery in 1996, it has wiped out many Tasmanian devil populations.

Researchers have devised different conservation plans to help minimise the spread of infection and protect the species, for example by relocating individuals to disease-free areas or creating captive breeding Breeding programs to help increase their numbers.

Dr Attard said the findings could aid these conservation efforts, whether by identifying changes in individual diets and habitat preferences in wild populations or by helping conservationists select the right bags Badger to transfer.

“As Tasmania’s top predator, the devil plays an important role in maintaining ecosystem health,” she said.

“The information we can gain from studying their whiskers can help conservationists protect current Tasmanian devil populations and successfully reintroduce them to areas in the wild.”

“These hard tissues have locked in stable isotopes, so just one sample of our hair can tell us what it ate as it grew.”

Breastfeeding There are only three types of transmissible cancers in animals — and DFTD is one of them.

In humans, hair follicle analysis can be used for medical research as well as long-term drug testing. But in animals, this testing method helps us learn more about animals’ foraging habits, seasonal dietary shifts and how they respond to environmental changes.