A cute but rascally Tasmanian devil. Want a closer look? Check out More Tasmanian Devil Photos. Enhance your experience: Watch Tasmanian Devils in Action! To learn more about the zoo, check out The Australia Zoo in Depth. Ready for more? Head back to the Australia Zoo Map.

The Australia Zoo is home to four very cute but rascally Tasmanian devils. The four enjoy wading in their waterfall ponds and basking on rocky escarpments inside their matching enclosures.

Tasmanian devils are the largest carnivorous marsupials alive today. They assumed the title when the last thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, died in captivity in 1936.

Today they are only found in Tasmania, but fossil evidence shows that devils once lived on mainland Australia. Scientists suspect that dingoes, which are an introduced species, drove both devils and thylacines to extinction on the mainland.

Although Tasmanian devils have been depicted as brutish killing machines in cartoons, real Tasmanian devils are scavengers, not hunters. They use their sharp teeth, heavy molars and powerful jaws to rip through hide and crush bone and gristle of dead animals that they find while foraging.

Tasmanian devils have an excellent sense of smell, which they use to locate carrion at night. Though solitary by nature, many individuals will converge on a single carcass to feed. A group of feeding devils will growl, snarl and screech at one another to establish dominance, creating quite the spectacle!

Surprisingly, fighting rarely breaks out between feeding devils, as they have a ritual of displays that keep physical conflict to a minimum. Most of these displays involve noises, such as harsh coughs and high-pitched screeches.

During the day Tasmanian devils hole up in burrows or dense bushes, emerging at night to forage. They move in a slow, lumbering manner as they roam up to 10 miles in a single night in search of food. They can also gallop very quickly, while young devils can even climb trees.

If threatened the Tasmanian devil will open its enormous mouth in a wide, gaping yawn. It may also produce a strong odor when under stress.