Cancer threatens Tasmanian Devils with extinction by "devil facial tumor disease"

In the last 2 decades, some 85% of wild Tasmanian Devils have been wiped out. The primary cause isn't poachers or habitat destruction, but a bizarre kind of *contagious* cancer. "A recent epidemic disease, known as devil facial tumor disease, has brought an extremely rare, but equally devastating, set of circumstances together to threaten the devil population. Facial tumor disease, unlike every form of cancer known to affect humans, is transferred directly from devil to devil when they bite each other, which is 'something they do a lot during feeding or mating.'”