Tasmanian Devil mating earlier to beat extinction

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Australia's endangered Tasmanian Devil, its numbers decimated by an infectious facial cancer, is mating earlier, scientists have found.

"To our knowledge, this is the first known case of infectious disease leading to increased early reproduction in a mammal," they wrote in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The disfiguring facial cancer, which often kills within months, has cut the island state's wild devil population by as much as 60 percent and it could become extinct in 10 to 20 years.

But a study covering five sites found that juvenile females, or those around a year old, were becoming sexually more precocious.

Before the disease in 2000, between zero and 12.5 percent of 1-year-old females bred. But after the disease started spreading, precocial breeding increased at one site to 13.3 percent by 2004. That figure jumped to 83.3 percent in 2006.

"Before the disease, the modal female began seasonal breeding at age 2 and produced a litter annually for 3 years, with ... death occurring in her fifth or sixth year," they wrote.

"Females now generally have one breeding opportunity and may not survive long enough to rear that litter."

The facial cancer is spread directly between devils through biting during the mating season.

The Tasmanian Devil is a carnivorous marsupial about the size of a small muscular dog. It has black fur, gives off a skunk-like odor when stressed and earns its devil name for its ferocious temperament and disturbing call.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by David Fogarty)