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Australian Natural AdventuresWildlife, Nature & Soft Adventure ToursCustom
Australia, New Zealand & Pacific tours and travel
TASMANIA
Tasmania is Australia's smallest state, and is ideal to see by car (unlike much of Australia's vast distances). In fact, as there are virtually no internal air flights, and Tassie's best features are spread from corner to corner, north to south, a self-driving visit becomes for many the tour of choice. Distances are short, roads are good, and traffic is light. The wonderful scenery, interesting smaller towns and villages, and often unplanned but rewardng reasons to stop for a few minutes all add to the benefit of discovering Tasmania by self-drive. These itineraries, each with a different theme, featuring some of the best Tasmania has to offer. However, if you prefer several fully inclusive tours are also available. We will be happy to link you up with a small group tour covering the whole state, or custom design a tour just for you featuring your interests. Our
two suggested itineraries are Scenic Tasmania
and Parks & Wildlife.
Click on either for more information. Tasmania is the most southern Australian state, and this means the coldest. June, July and August are the winter months, and the rainy ones, and touring at this time is not recommended. The best time to see Tasmania is from November to March, with September/October and April/May suitable but the chance of cooler weather and rain increases. Click on our Australian Weather page for more information.
TASMANIAN DEVIL FACIAL TUMOUR DISEASEDevil Facial
Tumour Disease is a fatal condition in Tasmanian devils characterised
by the appearance of obvious facial cancers. Tumours are first noticed
in and around the mouth as small lesions or lumps. These develop
into large tumours around the face and neck and sometimes ev NATURE TRAVEL SPECIALISTS adopted the Tasmanian Devil as our 2007 eco-charity recipient. We encourage you to find out more about this serious wildlife problem, thought to have killed about half the world's population of this species in the last twelve years, and for which there is no known cure or control. You can make a difference by donating to this cause of Tasmanian Devils on the web in the US and receive a tax deduction at the University of Tasmania Foundation. You can also become directly involved by volunteering to work with the devil monitoring program in Tasmania - see some of Tasmania's most beautiful and wild areas, and a lot of Australian wildlife, while working to save the Tassie Devil. There's more information about volunteering here.
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in other parts of the body. Adults appear to be most affected by
the disease - males the first affected, then females. Badly affected
devils may have many cancers throughout the body. As the cancers
develop devils may become emaciated, particularly if the tumours
interfere with teeth and feeding. Many females lose their young.
Affected animals appear to die within six months of the lesions
first appearing. Across Tasmania, there has been a 41% decline in
average sightings from 1992-95 to 2002-05. In the north-east region,
where signs of the Tasmanian devil disease were first reported,
there has been a 90 per cent decline of average spotlighting sightings
from 1992-95 to 2002-05. Thankfully, as at December 2006, populations
in the western third of the State remain healthy and viable, but
as of May 2012 this had been reduced to just one quarter of the
state. While it is uncommon for wildlife diseases to lead directly
to population extinction in the absence of other severe threats,
the Tasmanian devil disease is a new, unusual disease and there
is no hard evidence for population or individual resistance or recovery
from the disease. There is also a concern that if the population
is diminished, while numbers of the introduced fox increase, it
may be difficult for them ever to recover. The latest newletters,
for May 2012, can be downloaded as a pdf (1 MB) by clicking on this