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"<p>Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) has wiped out 80% of the Tasmanian devil population in the past 20 years, and scientists have made little progress in finding a cure.</p>\n<p>But now there’s a ray of hope for the largest-living carnivorous marsupial.</p>\n<p>Researchers from Washington State University have found that the species – which is only found in Australia’s island state of Tasmania – is evolving its own immunity to the disease.</p>\n<p>Researchers writing in the peer-reviewed journal <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/\"><em>Nature Communications</em></a>, say significant changes have occurred in just four generations in two areas and over six generations in another.</p>\n<p>“Our results reflect a rapid evolutionary response to the strong selection pressure imposed by DFTD, and such a response to a highly lethal, novel pathogen has rarely, if ever, been documented in wild populations,” they said.</p>\n<p>Read the <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160830/ncomms12684/full/ncomms12684.html\">full paper</a>.</p>\n<hr><p><em>Main image: Tasmanian Devils are rapidly evolving resistance to the cancer that kills them. © Craig Dingle/iStock</em></p>"
<https://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/tasmanian-devils-are-becoming-resistant-to-cancer/>