ABOUT FACE
A new exhibition continues the evolution of the Tasmanian devils’ public image
It is a sad irony that if not for the disfiguring facial tumour disease devastating the Tasmanian devil population, it might still be one of the most reviled and distrusted animals in the state. Its reputation as a sheep killer and opportunistic predator saw it considered a pest by farmers. Over the years, many farmers considered it a matter of pride to boast of how many devils they had killed.
To say this remarkable animal had a public image problem is an understatement. But since the discovery of Devil Facial Tumour Disease in 1996, there has been a tide of sympathy for the animal, changing its image in the public eye from bloodthirsty menace to beloved icon in danger.
Wildlife expert Nick Mooney, who has worked with Tasmanian devils in various capacities with the State Government for almost 40 years, says he used to despair at the hostile public attitude towards the animal. “The persecution of devils was ugly and unrelenting,” he says. “Most Tasmanians just saw them as these noisy, disgusting animals.”
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s major summer exhibition, The Remarkable Tasmanian Devil, may play a crucial part in overcoming that perspective. Open now and running until May, the exhibition looks at the devil from scientific, historical and social perspectives.
Exhibition curator Kathryn Medlock, senior curator of vertebrate biology at the TMAG, says the devil is remarkable for many reasons, but mainly because of its survival against huge odds. “It has survived against years of persecution and misunderstanding, then the Devil Facial Tumour Disease arose and despite the danger many animals are surviving the threat, and really, given everything stacked against it, it’s quite surprising the devil didn’t go the same way as the thylacine,” she says.
“And it’s just a unique animal. A carnivore marsupial, they’re not territorial, they come together to feed communally; all of that makes it very unusual.”
Medlock says the exhibition encompasses a long history of changing perceptions of the animal. “I’ve certainly noticed a big
change in people’s perceptions of the animal in the past 20 years. Devils are receiving a lot of sympathy now where before they were rarely seen as nice creatures,” she says.
The exhibition features displays from a variety of disciplines, including specially commissioned artworks inspired by the animal, displays of specimens and artefacts associated with the devil, historical displays and stories, education sections, interviews with a range of people working to save the devil from DFTD, and footage from inside a devil’s den.
“We’ve been working with the devil sanctuary at Cradle Mountain, where they have had cameras inside a female devil’s maternity den over many months,” Medlock says.
“So we have some amazing film of her looking after her young as they start to leave the pouch, then as she lodges them in the nest and goes out for food, and gradually they become more independent and go outside exploring.
“We have tried hard to work with different parts of the community and other organisations to create a multidisciplinary exhibition. And the contemporary art section adds a new aspect to the devil’s story as well. It can say a lot.”
The exhibition includes work from leading artists Raymond Arnold, Matt Calvert, Michael McWilliams and Vicki West, who is a Tasmanian Aboriginal artist who has made a little purinina (which is palawa kani for Tasmanian devil) using kelp and natural fibres. Calvert has created a work responding to the threat to the devil from roadkill, which draws them into the path of traffic.
The exhibition also includes stories that most people won’t have heard before. One of those is about Bluey, the devil who went to war.
“This particular devil was adopted by the Tasmanian 12th Battalion as their mascot in World War I and they took him with them when they went to fight,” Medlock says.
“He lived with them at an army training camp in Egypt near the Pyramids. A lot of native animals were taken as mascots, it was a long-running tradition, but we only learnt of Bluey quite recently when doing the research for this exhibition.”
The curators contacted what is now the 12/40th Battalion, the Royal Tasmanian Regiment, and discovered it still has a devil mascot. The battalion reinstated one to continue the tradition. The exhibition includes a photograph of the original Bluey with his handler, which was taken at the Brighton Army Camp before it set off for the war.
“Also, back in the 1930s, the mayor of Los Angeles wrote to the Tasmanian Fauna Board asking if it was possible to have three devils to present to the Lane sisters, who were three famous Hollywood starlets of the time,” Medlock says.
“And the Tasmanian authorities agreed. They captured three wild devils and we have footage of them being sent off to the US. Lots of industry people had private zoos back then and the animals were used in films, so there’s a chance the devils appeared in something as well, but we haven’t been able to prove that yet.”
Mooney, an honorary curator at the TMAG, assisted with the exhibition and also contributed items relating to devils and DFTD research.
“I invented those PVC tube traps that have now become the standard method of collecting devils, and I’ve included one for the exhibition,” he says.
Mooney is excited about the exhibition, which he says is vital to improving the public’s feelings towards devils. He says an exhibition such as this one would not have happened 20 years ago. “But the rarer they become, the more people seem to rethink that attitude and care about them,” he says. “I worry that there is an element of fashion to it, that if the numbers start to increase again those old attitudes will return.
“We need to consolidate the attitude of protecting and valuing them, so we don’t go back to despising them again when they bounce back.
“This positive attitude is likely to remain for as long as the tumour disease is still around, but my interest is in making sure that attitude of protection and appreciation becomes permanent, not just a fashion.
“I still think we’re only really having this conversation because the disease that is killing the devils is horrible; it’s ugly, confronting and disfiguring. It’s cancer, and that scares people, they feel sorry for it. If devils were just mysteriously dying out and dying quietly, I doubt people would care as much.”
The biggest single-species exhibition held previously by the TMAG was on the thylacine. “It experienced a similar groundswell of popular adoration in the years since it was wiped out,” Mooney says. “Rarity creates a lot of friends and extinction creates even more. The farmers who used to brag to me about all the devils they killed don’t bring it up anymore. Peer pressure is working, we just need to make sure it remains this way.”
Medlock, whose main area of research is into the thylacine, agrees, saying an exhibition like The Remarkable Tasmanian Devil is the first step to creating a more permanent change.
“I hope the people who visit take away a new respect for devils and their role in the ecosystem, and the message that we can all do something to help our native species,” she says.
“The easiest thing we can all do is slow down on the roads at night to reduce roadkill. We can’t all be in a lab trying to cure cancer, but we can all drive a little slower.” The Remarkable Tasmanian Devil is open now until May 6 at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. Entry is free. Tomorrow from 10am–3pm is a themed family fun day focusing on the animal. It features guests from the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, with activities including mask-making and designing a menu for a devil