The annual Tasmanian devil breeding season has arrived again and the iconic species is getting ready to pair off and reproduce.

However the mating ritual plays out like a television soap opera; courting, dominance, violence, adultery, but still fascinating and beautiful in its own unique way.

University of Tasmania devil expert Dr Menna Jones says the female devil makes the choice when it comes to finding a mate.

"Female devils seem to like a big hunk of a guy, who's going to come in and show them that he's dominant, who'll push them around a little bit," she says.

If a male devil is too timid, the female will spurn his advances.

"In fact if he's very timid, they'll turn around and just beat him up," she says.

Some females have been observed allowing younger, inexperienced males, who may be in their first mating season, to practice the ritual with them.

"They'll get as far as even starting to copulate with them and then they'll stand up and just walk away," Dr Jones says.

The female uses a soliciting call, to attract potential suitors.

"They've got this lovely little whining call that they use," she says.

"Then the female will require the male to chase her into submission."

The males will bring the female to his den, where he will push her around, biting and scratching, until she submits.

"The effect of the male pushing her around is that she will go into an almost trance-like where she will allow him to mate with her," she says.

Each time they mate can take up to an hour and a pair of devils can mate several times over a two-day period.

Once this is complete, the exhausted male will stay and guard the female and will occasionally fall into a deep sleep.

It's at this point the female becomes very sneaky.

She wants to hedge her bets and mate with several males to get the best possible quality of fathers for her offspring.

In the wild, one litter of pups can have up to four different fathers.

"So the female is very good at sneaking away from the male and going and mating with other males," Dr Jones says.

While the male is asleep, the female will watch him for a while, stretch and yawn, then settle down closer to the entrance of the den.

"And she'll do that three or four times until she's positioned to make a run for it," she says.

"Generally the male will catch her within two to five metres and he'll grab her by the neck and drag her back to the den.

"If she's really determined to get away... she'll turn around and fight him."

It may sound like a traumatic experience for the devils, but Dr Jones warns we shouldn't put our own value judgments on it.

"Devils growl, they scream, it's a blood curdling screech that they've got and they bite each other a lot," she says.

"But we have to be very careful how we interpret that, devils are extremely intelligent and highly social animals.

"They develop long-term relationships, even in the wild devils will be resident for life."