A Devil Worth Saving

Team: 17

School: Aspen Elementary

Area of Science: Zoology

Proposal: Our team is interested in discovering how long it may take for the Tasmanian Devil to become extinct in the wild, and can they be repopulated by using captive animals?

We will look at current estimates on population of Devils in the wild, how many survive infancy, at what age do they start fighting, how long does it take for the facial tumor disease to progress to death, and other factors causing them to quickly move toward extinction.

Some of the questions we'd like to answer are if any have shown immunity to the disease, and look at possible solutions to save them as they are important to their ecosystem. We hope to show that tumor free Devils can be separated from the ones with the facial tumor disease, to restart the population in Tasmania once the ones with the disease have died.

Team Members:

  Gabriel Holesinger
  Sabio Thompson
  Tazler Smith
  Thomas Chadwick
  John Vandenkieboom

Sponsoring Teacher: Kathryn Thomas

Mail the entire Team