Wendy Hallihan, age 11, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, for her question:

Are there still any Tasmanian devils?

Andy is happy to report that the little devil is alive and doing quite well in his native Tasmania. At present, he is not even on that grim list of endangered species    for a very good reason. The people of Tasmania have sense enough to treasure their native wild life. They know that many of their animals are rare and unusual. Years ago they made determined plans to protect their rare and unusual Tasmanian devil.

The story of his family's survival goes back many millions of years, to a time when Australia and its nearby islands were joined to the major continents. In those days, many of the world's mammals were marsupials, who carried their helpless, immature infants in pouches. Gradual changes in the seabed caused the land mass to break up and spread apart into separate continents. Eventually Australia and its islands were isolated and located in the watery Southern Hemisphere.

The ancestors of the Tasmanian devil were carried away on their huge drifting rafts, along with a menagerie of other marsupials. Meantime, the mammals on other continents made frantic changes to keep up with the times. Their infants were born later and more fully developed. Baby pouches went out of style. The vegetarians became bigger and faster to escape the meat eaters, who became stronger and fiercer. When these wolfish and catty carnivores came to the lands of the marsupials, they disposed of them one by one.

For a long time, a couple of smallish meat eaters survived among their marsupial cousins in Australia. They disappeared from the continent when the bushmen brought fierce modern dogs from across the ocean. However, these marsupial carnivores and relatives on the safer island of Tasmania.

One of these is the striped, collie sized Tasmanian wolf. His numbers were reduced by early sheep ranchers, though a few may survive in remote regions. No one is sure. The other is our heroic blackie, alias the Tasmanian devil. He triumphed over bitter hardships and survived to enjoy a successful future. Nowadays he is protected by stern laws and encouraged to enjoy life in a fabulous National Forest. His safe territory includes about one sixth of the island of Tasmania.

You might mistake him for a jet black bear cub, with white smudges on his nose and rump. Though he is only three feet long and weighs in at 20 pounds, he is a mighty fighter. When cornered, he makes ferocious faces at his foes    and plunges fearlessly into battle.

The courageous little character was a threat to the sheep, though he prefers to catch frogs and small rodents near his bountiful mountain streams. People called him a devil because he makes such devilishly fierce faces and fights so fiercely to defend himself. But of all things, when captured, the so called devil turns into a loving, angelic house pet, very neat and clean and full of playful antics.