Cartoons
The DEVILS of TASMANIA: Vicious and Sick
“No one is really sure exactly how the cartoon character Taz originated. Some theorize that it may have been an inspiration of Errol Flynn, a native Tasmanian and a 1930s star of such movies as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). His father, T.T. Flynn, was a professor who did some of the first studies of the Tasmanian devil’s biology. “One story is that a producer from Warner Bros. saw a devil in a traveling zoo,” says Nick Mooney, a wildlife biologist for Tasmania’s Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. ‘The animal was driven crazy by confinement and was racing around in its cage, sort of like in the cartoon.’ ”
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