Outbreak of Cancer causes Tasmanian devil to be listed as an endangered species

Australia's Tasmanian devil is to be listed as an endangered species, after its numbers plummeted as a result of an outbreak of cancer.

Reports suggest that the cancer - which spreads over the marsupial's face and mouth and stops it from eating - has caused populations to decline by 60 per cent in recent years.

A spokeswoman for Tasmania's primary industries minister David Llewellyn told the Bloomberg news agency that the creature's status would be updated to endangered later this week.

"The change in the devil's status reflects the real possibility that this iconic species could face extinction in the wild within 20 years," Mr Llewellyn added.

It has proved hard to accurately assess Tasmanian devil numbers, as they are difficult to locate in the wild.

Some experts have suggested that the species may have declined from around 150,000 in the mid-1990s to less than 20,000.