Word: devil
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...beating Bush. But genuinely Democratic politicians have been missing in action since the 1960s. The Democrats are vying for the hearts and minds of the party faithful, but they abandoned their core values and hung their supporters out to dry long ago. They made their pact with the devil to stay in office no matter what the cost. Principles were the first casualty. Democrats should stop their charade and join the Republicans. After all, enough Dems sided with the G.O.P. to pass tax cuts, reform Medicare and approve the invasion of Iraq. At least we know what the G.O.P. represents...
...first hints of DFTD surfaced eight years ago, when a photographer contacted Mooney to tell him of terrible tumors he had documented in devils in Tasmania?s northeast. Then, in 1999, one of the world?s few devil experts, zoologist Menna Jones, reported similar tumors among animals she was studying on the east coast. But it wasn?t until late last year that a statewide snapshot survey revealed the full extent of the epidemic. Despite the Tasmanian devil?s iconic status and its key ecological role as a super-efficient scourer of the bush, requests for a program to monitor...
...Industries, Water and Environment heads into state forest bordering the Wilderness World Heritage Area in Tasmania?s rugged Central Highlands. The logging road crosses the Nive River, running silver in the early light, and winds among snow gums covered in creamy blossoms. Plenty of ground cover makes this perfect devil country, home to a daily smorgasbord of wallabies and other treats. That?s why Mooney, scientific officer Billie Lazenby and conservation officer Andry Sculthorpe are here, hoping to catch enough devils to help them unravel the cancer-like disease that?s believed to have halved the devil population...
Precisely how it?s doing that is baffling experts, for the killer, known as devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), is as mysterious as it is disfiguring. Today Mooney?s team are checking their 50 traps - lengths of PVC pipe pierced with air vents and nestled in shady spots - measuring, weighing and attaching microchips to healthy and sick devils as part of a new statewide monitoring program. There?s still no diagnostic test, so the team must check the face and gums of every animal, disinfecting each trap as they empty it. But there?s no missing the disease...
...sparse is information on devils in the wild that scientists at the state-run Animal Health Laboratory in Launceston are trying to figure out just what a healthy devil should look like. Performing an autopsy on a diseased devil, veterinarian Robyn Sharpe painstakingly cuts out pieces of tissue. ?We have to take everything because we know so little about devils,? she says. The animals ?have been like seagulls,? says her pathologist colleague Richmond Loh, ?so common that no one?s really studied them.? Now Loh and others are racing to determine whether the disease is caused by a virus...