1803. A mixed group of English officers, sailors, and convicts settled on what they thought was mainland Australia.

They were wrong. But their mistake is forgivable. They saw the same parrots in the sky,

the same kangaroos and wallabies on the ground,

and the same eucalyptus trees growing from the earth.

But at night, they noticed something was amiss.

They could not sleep.

Instead, they lay awake in their tents, terrified, listening to the horrifying sounds

that told them they were somewhere different. Echoing across the valleys, reverberating through

the forest, piercing the night. They could hear the screams of a devil.

They were not in England anymore.

They were on a massive island, divorced from Australia's underbelly.

They were in Tasmania.

And they were listening to the Tasmanian devil.

Sarkophilis, heresy.

I'm Mackin.

This is species.

Welcome to the show.

Today I'm going to make you an expert on the Tasmanian Devil, the largest carnivorous marsupial on Earth.

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