Tasmanian devils eat almost anything made of meat, but most of their diet comes from scavenging carcasses rather than hunting live prey. These stocky marsupials are Tasmania’s cleanup crew, feeding on the bodies of wallabies, possums, wombats, cattle, birds, and whatever else they find dead on the landscape. They consume virtually the entire carcass, fur, bones, and organs included, leaving very little behind. While devils do hunt small animals and insects on occasion, field research using animal-borne video cameras found that scavenging accounted for roughly five to seven percent of each devil’s nightly activity, with active hunting occupying a much smaller slice of their time.
What Shows Up in the Diet
Scat and stomach analyses paint a picture of a generalist scavenger that takes advantage of whatever carrion is available. A study examining devil scats from both coastal and inland Tasmania found that the most commonly consumed animals were birds, brushtail and ringtail possums, Tasmanian pademelons, and Bennett’s wallabies.1Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The diet of the Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, as determined from analysis of scat and stomach contents Coastal devils had a broader menu, with ten species of mammal turning up in their scats alongside fish and insects. Inland devils ate fewer species overall but still consumed six types of mammal plus birds and invertebrates.
Video collar footage from wild devils added more detail: identifiable scavenging events included cows, macropods (wallabies and pademelons), a brushtail possum, a snake, birds, and a native hen egg.2PLOS ONE. Activity and social interactions in a wide-ranging specialist scavenger, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), revealed by animal-borne video collars Smaller carcasses were scavenged more frequently than large ones, which makes sense: a dead possum is easier for a single devil to find and finish than the remains of a full-grown cow. The cameras also caught devils eating their own species’ scats, a behavior that may help recycle nutrients or simply reflects how little they waste.
The overall picture is of an animal that eats whatever dead meat the landscape provides, supplementing with the occasional live catch. Livestock carcasses from farms, roadkill, animals that died of disease or old age, and prey killed by other predators all end up in a devil’s stomach.
How Diet Changes with Age
Young devils eat quite differently from adults. A study tracking chemical signatures in devil whiskers across age groups found that juveniles relied heavily on small mammals, birds, and invertebrates, while adults shifted toward consuming larger herbivores like wallabies and pademelons.3PubMed Central. Age-related variation in the trophic characteristics of a marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii The dietary diversity among individual devils also narrowed with age: young devils sampled wildly different foods, but older devils converged on a more predictable diet dominated by large carcasses.
This shift makes intuitive sense. A small juvenile devil lacks the body mass and jaw strength to dominate a large carcass, especially when bigger adults are already feeding on it. Young devils compensate by being opportunistic, catching insects and small birds and raiding whatever smaller food sources they can find on their own. As they grow, their increasing size and bite power give them access to the large carcasses that represent the most energy-efficient food source in the Tasmanian bush.
The Jaws That Crush Bone
A devil’s diet only makes sense once you understand its skull. For its body size, the Tasmanian devil produces the strongest bite of any living mammal. A comparative study across dozens of mammalian species found that when bite force was adjusted for body mass, the Tasmanian devil ranked highest among all the living species tested.4PubMed Central. Bite club: comparative bite force in big biting mammals and the prediction of predatory behaviour in fossil taxa An adult devil weighs only about eight to fourteen kilograms, yet its jaws can exert enough pressure to crack through thick mammalian leg bones.
That bone-cracking habit comes at a cost. Biomechanical modeling of the devil’s skull found that crunching through bone generates surprisingly high stress on the skull itself.5Journal of Zoology. Skull mechanics and implications for feeding behaviour in a large marsupial carnivore guild: the thylacine, Tasmanian devil and spotted‐tailed quoll The devil’s skull contains a higher proportion of spongy bone compared to denser cortical bone, which likely helps absorb the repeated shock of bone-crunching but makes the skull less rigid overall. It is an evolutionary trade-off: a skull built for durability under repetitive impact rather than maximum stiffness.
This jaw power is what allows devils to consume nearly every part of a carcass. They eat the meat, the skin, the organs, and the bones themselves. Very little is left when a group of devils finishes feeding. Their teeth reflect this lifestyle too, with broad, robust premolars built for crushing and slicing rather than the thin, blade-like teeth you see in predators that eat only soft tissue.
A Digestive System Built for Meat
Devils digest meat with remarkable efficiency. A study measuring how well captive devils broke down different food items found that digestibility exceeded 85 percent for dry matter, protein, and fat alike.3PubMed Central. Age-related variation in the trophic characteristics of a marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii Carbohydrates contributed almost nothing to their energy intake, accounting for three percent or less. The gut itself is short and simple, typical of a strict carnivore, with tissue structure specialized for extracting nutrients from a high-protein diet.
The gut microbiome plays into this as well. Researchers analyzing the bacteria living in devil intestines found that the most active microbial pathways involved the metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrates, energy extraction, vitamins, and lipids.6PubMed Central. The Tasmanian devil microbiome-implications for conservation and management In other words, the microbial community in a devil’s gut is tuned to help squeeze every bit of nutrition from animal tissue. This efficiency matters for a scavenger that may go days between large meals and then gorge on a carcass when one becomes available. Devils can eat up to 40 percent of their body weight in a single sitting, then rely on stored energy until the next find.
Finding Food in the Dark
Devils are almost entirely nocturnal, spending their days in dens and emerging after dark to forage. They cover large distances each night, sometimes traveling 15 kilometers or more in search of food. Their primary tools for locating carcasses are an acute sense of smell and excellent hearing. A dead wallaby lying in scrubland may be invisible from a distance, but the smell of decomposition carries far on the cool Tasmanian night air, and devils are adept at following scent trails to their source.
The video collar study revealed where devils actually find their meals: scavenging events occurred overwhelmingly in natural vegetation, with smaller numbers on agricultural pasture, beaches, roads, and near houses.2PLOS ONE. Activity and social interactions in a wide-ranging specialist scavenger, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), revealed by animal-borne video collars Road-killed animals formed a small but consistent part of the diet, and the proximity of roads is actually a documented risk factor for devils themselves. They come to feed on roadkill and sometimes get hit by cars in the process.
The Noise at the Carcass
If you have ever heard a devil feeding, you know it is not a quiet affair. When multiple devils converge on the same carcass, the result is a spectacle of screaming, growling, and posturing. Field researchers documenting social behavior at feeding sites cataloged 20 distinct visual postures and 11 vocal sounds that devils use during these encounters.7Australian Journal of Zoology. A Field-Study of Communication and Social-Behavior of the Tasmanian Devil at Feeding Sites Chemical signals through urination and scent-marking also played a role. Despite all the drama, actual physical fights were rare. Most encounters were resolved through threat displays, with the loser backing off and waiting its turn.
One surprising finding from this work was that there appeared to be no fixed hierarchy determining who fed first. Unlike wolves or hyenas, where dominant individuals eat before subordinates, devils seemed to arrive, display, and feed in no particular pecking order. This may reflect the fact that large carcasses are relatively unpredictable in time and space, making it hard for any single devil to monopolize food access over the long term. The result is more of a loud, jostling free-for-all than an orderly queue.
Among Tasmania’s native meat-eaters, the devil dominates at carcasses simply because it is the largest. An adult devil can chase off a spotted-tailed quoll, the next largest native predator. However, an adult spotted-tailed quoll can sometimes hold its ground against a young devil that has not yet reached full size.8Oxford Academic. Sarcophilus harrisii (Dasyuromorphia: Dasyuridae)
Tasmania’s Sanitation Service
Because devils consume carcasses so thoroughly, including skin, bone, and gristle that most other scavengers leave behind, they effectively remove dead animal matter from the environment. This has real consequences for decomposition and insect populations. A study comparing carcass decomposition at sites with different devil population densities found that where devils were scarce, insect scavengers moved in to fill the gap. Carrion beetle and blowfly larvae were about twice as abundant on carcasses at sites with low devil numbers compared to sites with healthy devil populations.9PubMed. Decline of an apex vertebrate scavenger increases carrion use by invertebrates
This matters because blowflies and carrion beetles break down carcasses differently than devils do. Insect decomposition is slower, messier, and potentially supports the spread of disease organisms and parasites that thrive in rotting tissue. In areas where devil facial tumor disease has dramatically reduced devil numbers, the shift toward insect-dominated carrion breakdown may have cascading effects on nutrient cycling and local ecosystems. The devils’ role as nature’s cleanup crew is not just colorful shorthand; it describes a genuine ecological service.
Does Disease Change What They Eat?
Devil facial tumor disease has devastated devil populations across much of Tasmania since the mid-1990s, raising the question of whether sick animals change their diet as the disease progresses. Tumors grow on and around the mouth, which could plausibly make it harder to eat. Researchers tracked isotopic signatures in devils before and after tumor detection and found that, in most populations, infected devils maintained the same general diet as before they were sick.10PubMed Central. Isotopic niche variation in Tasmanian devils Sarcophilus harrisii with progression of devil facial tumor disease
There was one exception: at Freycinet National Park, devils with larger tumors showed a shift toward feeding at a higher position in the food chain, which could mean they were eating more carrion from larger animals or scavenging differently. The researchers suggested that local ecological conditions, not just the disease itself, determined whether sick devils altered their feeding behavior. In environments where alternative food sources were accessible, tumor-bearing devils adjusted. In other areas, they simply kept eating as they always had, presumably until the disease became too advanced for them to forage at all.
What Happens When Devils Show Up Somewhere New
Conservation efforts have included translocating devils to new locations to create disease-free insurance populations. These introductions have provided an unintentional experiment in what devils eat when they arrive in an unfamiliar ecosystem. On Maria Island, off Tasmania’s east coast, DNA analysis of devil scats revealed a remarkably broad diet that included short-tailed shearwaters and little penguins alongside the usual mammals and invertebrates.11PubMed Central. DNA metabarcoding reveals a broad dietary range for Tasmanian devils introduced to a naive ecosystem Those seabird species had no evolutionary experience with devil predation and nested on or near the ground, making them easy targets.
The consequences were severe. Increasing devil activity on Maria Island was associated with the complete loss of a shearwater colony within four years of the devils’ arrival.12Biological Conservation. Conservation trade-offs: Island introduction of a threatened predator suppresses invasive mesopredators but eliminates a seabird colony Devils reduced possum and feral cat activity near the colonies, which initially seemed beneficial, but the devils themselves turned out to be worse for the nesting birds than the predators they displaced. Their ability to dig up burrow-nesting seabirds gave them an advantage that smaller predators lacked. The Maria Island experience became a cautionary tale about the complexity of reintroductions: saving one endangered species by moving it into a new habitat can directly harm other native species that evolved without that predator.
Modeling work has also explored the idea of reintroducing devils to mainland Australia, where they went extinct around three thousand years ago. The research suggests that climatically suitable habitat exists in southeastern Australia and that devils could theoretically fill an ecological role similar to dingoes in areas where dingoes have been eliminated, suppressing feral cats and foxes that currently devastate native wildlife.13Biological Conservation. Reintroduction of Tasmanian devils to mainland Australia can restore top-down control in ecosystems where dingoes have been extirpated Whether their scavenging habits would cause similar unintended consequences to those seen on Maria Island remains an open question.
Lead Contamination from Scavenging
One underappreciated hazard of the devil’s scavenging lifestyle involves lead exposure, particularly in captive and semi-wild conservation programs. Many captive devils are fed possum and wallaby carcasses supplied by local hunters who use lead ammunition. Researchers found that captive devils had significantly higher blood lead concentrations than wild devils, and older captive animals had higher levels than younger ones, suggesting that lead was accumulating over time from repeated exposure through food.3PubMed Central. Age-related variation in the trophic characteristics of a marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii When managers started removing the heads and wound channels from carcasses before feeding them to devils, blood lead levels dropped significantly.
This finding has practical importance for devil conservation breeding programs. If the goal is to maintain healthy insurance populations in captivity, inadvertently poisoning them through their food supply is counterproductive. The issue also raises questions about lead exposure in wild devils that scavenge hunter-shot carcasses or gut piles left in the bush, though wild populations studied so far show lower levels than their captive counterparts. The problem is not unique to devils; lead ammunition fragments have been documented as a threat to scavenging birds of prey and other carrion-feeding animals worldwide, but the devil’s tendency to consume the entire carcass, bones and all, makes it particularly vulnerable to ingesting bullet fragments.
Coastal Versus Inland Menus
Where a devil lives shapes what it eats. Coastal devils have access to a wider buffet than their inland relatives. The scat analysis comparing coastal and inland populations found that coastal scats contained ten mammal species along with birds, fish, and insects, while inland scats held six mammal species, birds, and invertebrates.1Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania. The diet of the Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, as determined from analysis of scat and stomach contents Fish in the coastal diet likely comes from scavenging washed-up fish or raiding tide pools rather than active fishing. Devils are not aquatic hunters, but they are not above eating anything edible that the sea deposits on shore.
The Maria Island experience confirmed that coastal devils take advantage of marine-associated prey. Seabirds that come ashore to breed, penguin colonies, and marine invertebrates all end up on the menu when they are accessible. This habitat-dependent flexibility is one of the devil’s strengths as a species: it does not depend on any single prey item. As long as animals die, and they always do, devils have something to eat. That adaptability has likely helped the species persist through the dramatic population declines caused by devil facial tumor disease, even if individual populations have shrunk to a fraction of their former size.