Mainland Australian sanctuary welcomes healthy Tasmanian devil joey generation
In the cool, fern-lined eucalyptus forests of the Barrington Tops in New South Wales, conservation biologists at Aussie Ark marked an extraordinary milestone: dozens of healthy Tasmanian devil joeys took their first steps in the wild on mainland Australia.
Tasmanian devils vanished from the Australian mainland approximately three thousand years ago, surviving only on the island state of Tasmania. But over the past twenty-five years, an infectious facial tumour disease devastated island populations by up to ninety percent, pushing the world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupial perilously close to extinction. In response, Aussie Ark constructed a fully fenced, thousand-acre mountain sanctuary on the mainland to establish a disease-free insurance population.
In 2020, rangers released an initial cohort of captive-bred adult devils into the sanctuary to forage, establish territories, and breed naturally. Recent infrared camera trap surveys and veterinary pouch checks confirmed that female devils have successfully birthed and raised generations of wild-born joeys without human intervention, proving that the species can thrive in mainland highland habitat.
Ecologists report that the presence of the devils is already helping rebalance the regional ecosystem. As native apex predators, devils deter invasive feral cats and red foxes, allowing populations of vulnerable ground-dwelling mammals like bandicoots and potoroos to rebound. The ongoing breeding success brings conservationists closer to their dream of rewilding native marsupial predators across protected continental landscapes.
Source: Tasmanian Devil Reintroduction and Breeding Success on Mainland Australia (Aussie Ark).
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